Red Sun Over Beacon
by Gleaming Onyx
Summary: Convinced by Blake to follow her out of the White Fang, Adam finds himself forced to mingle with humans in Beacon Academy, namely in his new team: RWAY("Rua"). Now, he must struggle both with his hatred and his team's... eccentricities, all while villains and even his own former organization rise to challenge Remnant's very way of life. (Revising V1) (Updated chapters: 4-11)
1. A Long Week

**A Long Week**

* * *

 **A/N: This fic is currently going under revisions. If you haven't read the fic yet, be wary about checking reviews if you don't want spoilers, because chapters might shift around a little. Also, as with all renovations, there might be a _couple_ inconsistencies until it's fully completed. If you have read the fic(or at least past Volume 1) and just want to know what has changed for when V3 comes along, the current list of changes is currently on  Chapter 57.** **Think of them like 'patch notes'.**

 **You can continue reading through V1 even mid-revision without issue, don't worry, no events are erased and then referred to later on.**

 **Many thanks.**

 **The most recently changed chapters are Chapters 4-11.**

* * *

Amber eyes stared up into an impassive, pale mask.

"Why?"

Blake had left her guard down. That was a mistake. With one step, Adam had crossed the separated train cars and now stood looming over her. Ruby-red trees swept past them in a blur. The question meant many things: why did Blake think she could get away so easily? Why was she trying to leave the White Fang? Why was she trying to leave him?

 _"Why?"_ Adam growled again. He advanced a step, then paused: Blake's hand was on her weapon's hilt, trembling. Did she truly think he would harm her, without even knowing her reasoning? His eyes narrowed, but, he did not move further.

"I asked you a question, Blake."

"You've changed." This was a conversation they'd had many times before. That didn't answer his question.

"What of it?" Blake flinched. "You've become weak."

Her bow flattened against her head. "Weak? I don't want to kill innocents, that's not weakness!"

"Innocents? Blake, do you remember who owns this train?" Adam swept his arm off towards the myriad of snowflake-stamped crates. "This is a Schnee cargo train! There are no innocent Schnees! No innocent humans!"

"Then how is the White Fang any different from them?" Adam's blade was out of his sheath and pointed at her faster than even he could recognize it. Adam took the second of stunned silence to steady his hand, mask his shock at his own wrath, and regain control.

"Blake, you know how much I care for you..." But, he did not lower his blade. "Which is why I am asking you to choose your next words carefully."

Curiously, Blake's stare only hardened. She didn't even make a step away from his blade. "Not everyone in the White Fang are killers like us. What about the people just handing out fliers? Or donating? Or just driving our trucks? That's exactly what the people on this train are: non-combatants. Adam, if we kill them... if you kill them... you'll be just like the SDC. I can't stay with you like this. Not after guiding you to this point, myself. This was my fault..."

Revenge. That was what he wanted to call it: revenge for their crimes against faunus everywhere. Yet, in their many arguments, he remembered when it wasn't revenge, it was retaliation. When it wasn't retaliation, it was self-defense. When it wasn't self-defense, it was just an accident. His eyes turned down to his crimson blade, pointed so quickly at someone who was all but a sister to him without a thought.

Adam's grip slackened. "It's the only way they'll listen, and you know it." His words were hollow.

Now, it was Blake's turn to step forward. Adam stepped back. "So, what happens when we win, then, Adam? Are we just going to bomb the humans once in a while to show them who's in charge? Just like they used to do to us? We'll only be ruling through fear!"

"No, that is ruling through power!"

"Whatever power has to be gained through massacring civilians isn't a power we need." Blake shook her head. "What happened to our revolution, Adam? What happened to _you?_ "

Adam gritted his teeth and tried to ignore how her words struck him like a knife. "This _is_ our revolution, Blake. This _is_ me!"

"This is terrorism, Adam, and I won't stand by it any longer," Blake said solemnly. She took a breath to steady herself, then turned away from him. "And if that's what you are, then... I don't want to see you again." And, with that twist of the knife already in his heart, all thoughts of the White Fang left him. Blake was truly going to leave him, just like that? She was his friend for as long as he could remember: his partner, his comrade, and at one time, his lover. Maybe it was arrogance, but if he couldn't convince Blake of all people that there was something of worth in him, maybe there really was nothing at all. Maybe he'd lost himself, and taken the White Fang with it.

He stared down at his blade. Engraved near the hilt was a Mistralian symbol, a tenant from his mentor's home country: _Chuugi._ Loyalty. His mentor may have scoffed at the notion, but, Adam kept it close ever since he had heard of it.

What loyalty was there in letting someone he'd known for years just walk away?

Adam looked up to see Blake already walking away. He took a deep breath, then, made his decision. "... If you think the White Fang is wrong, then fix it." Blake stopped. "And I'll help you every step of the way."

Blake spun to look at him, eyes wide in apparent shock. Her lips parted once to speak, but, she stayed silent. Adam resisted the urge to smile as, slowly, her ears began to twitch, and her eyes darted across her surroundings. It was what she did whenever she was planning something. Adam had the utmost faith that, whatever her strategy may be, he would be glad to follow it.

* * *

Blake was an idiot and he was an even bigger one for listening.

Adam stroked his temples in what was quickly becoming his favorite action, now that he had no mask to worry about. He was brooding—not pouting, there was a severe difference, he told himself—over the many _other_ things he had to worry about, instead.

Like being on a loud, human-packed airship headed to Beacon Academy.

In Blake's grand wisdom, she decided that while she went off to Menagerie, he was going to take a nice little 'vacation' in Beacon Academy. Learn how to mingle with humans, she said! Make yourself less hostile, she said! He could've easily just spent time in a human settlement if she was so picky about it, but, according to her, having to _protect_ them would help even more. Yeah. He'd believe it when he saw it.

Not like he had much of a choice: the only faunus he even saw on this ship was the girl he sat next to now, one who tried to hide her cheetah ears under a hoodie. How demeaning.

He tried brushing his hand through his hair and nearly knocked off the new, black homburg hat hiding his horns. Ah, right. She wasn't alone in that demeaning act. Make no mistake, he hated every moment of hiding what made him a faunus, but it wasn't his own idea. Blake decided that it'd be easier to stay low if he hid what made him a faunus. She didn't want him to be targeted. Adam would have _loved_ to be targeted by one of these fools... but, considering how the—right and justified—retribution he would rain down would more than likely get him outed as a terrorist or expelled, he supposed Blake had a point.

 _However,_ that did not mean he had to forgive her for getting forged transcripts that painted him as a hooligan. At the supposed age of nineteen, he, "Adam Belladonna," did not have a lick of formal experience or schooling. Even with his prodigious combat ability, it wouldn't let him beyond being a first-year. A twenty-one year old surrounded by seventeen year olds. Oh, he could feel the headache coming back.

He was a drop-out.

Sure, that was _true_ , but that didn't mean it had to be rubbed in his face by putting him with first-years! It was even more demeaning! Adam just collapsed back into his seat and crossed his arms, muttering under his breath.

... It was still brooding, not pouting!

* * *

"Watch it!" Adam barked at an apparently blind girl who decided to deploy a monstrosity of a scythe an inch away from his face. The red-headed wielder didn't even notice, chattering away to a taller, blonde, human woman. Typical human. He stalked through the crowd, instinct drawing his eyes to anyone who could pose a threat. Adam grunted a halfhearted apology to some white-haired girl he nearly bumped into, not even bothering to turn to the human with a Schnee crest emblazoned on her back and—wait, what was that last part?

Adam spun on his heels to see none other than the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company dragging along her luggage and ordering around a pair of guards to collect the rest. Weiss Schnee. A Schnee. Alone. Only two guards. Within spitting distance of him. There were entire cells that would kill for a chance like this, and here he was, with Wilt in hand and her back to him. Oh, what luck! What fate! What evil fortune!

Surely, Blake would excuse just a small slip of the blade for something this important. Just enough to satisfy all the White Fang would want, then escape, change his name—again—and start anew! Again! A simple plan—

The scythe-wielder tumbled right into the Schnee's Dust and luggage, interrupting his thoughts. Right. Others were around. Remembering not only who he now was, but what life he was supposed to be putting behind him, Adam thought about simply turning away... yet, he just couldn't upon hearing that Schnee ranting at the admittedly clumsy, young-looking girl for events she never could have foreseen. The ranting turned to screaming after, with naught but a sneeze, the clumsy girl created an explosion that, unfortunately, left the Schnee unharmed.

Petty victories against the SDC, Adam supposed, would have to do. Speaking of which, he thought as he picked up a bottle flung away from the explosion, make that nice bottle of fine, red Dust she dropped the first one... what? Blake didn't have any problems with stealing an entire train car's worth, surely one little bottle wouldn't hurt...

"Aren't you a little _young_ to be attending Beacon?" The Schnee's shrill voice sliced through the air as Adam calmly approached, unheard and unseen both. And for his _second_ petty victory...

"Aren't you a little old to be having temper tantrums?"

The Schnee jumped slightly at someone as tall as him being able to sneak up on her. Any fright, however, swiftly gave way to rage.

"Excuse me?" she growled. "Do you even _know_ who you're talking to?" The clumsy one managed a smile as Adam smirked. Bad idea.

"Of course, my deepest apologies. I should be much more pleasant when speaking to the heiress of a beloved and well-respected Dust propellant producer..." He waited until the Schnee opened her mouth to continue, "Unfortunately, no such person is here. Instead stands before me Weiss Schnee, heiress to the most reviled and discriminating corporation since the abolition of slavery. Well, official abolition. You should know." By the time he had finished, the Schnee had gone from just angry to flustered, indignant and stuttering to form a response. Her cheeks were growing red with embarrassment and rage both.

"Oh, and by the way, _Schnee_ ," he spat her name like a curse. "Before you insult someone for looking young, maybe wait until _after_ puberty hits." The clumsy one snickered and stuck her tongue out at the spoiled girl.

"Unbelievable!" With a strangled growl of frustration, the Schnee stormed off without even grabbing her suitcases. A job well done, and a petty victory well-earned. Satisfied, Adam turned to leave.

"Hey, uh, what's your name?" the clumsy human asked.

Adam raised an eyebrow. "Adam." He decided to walk faster, lest the human girl mistake a common enemy for an alliance.

"Oh, I'm Ruby! Nice to meet you!" Unfortunately, she chose to follow him around like a lost puppy. Adam sighed as she trailed behind, rattling off about her scythe, her hometown, her sister, and having the terribly annoying tendency to take his grunts of agitation as reason to continue. It was only when he heard a _second_ voice did he realize someone else had joined along: some blonde human boy who... actually, on second look, was the one vomiting on the airship a moment ago.

Adam made sure to lose the two in the amphitheater as soon as possible.

* * *

As Ozpin walked away from the microphone with a limp in his step, Adam smiled: dark as his speech may have been, it did rather well in unsettling the new blood. That would prepare them better for what was to come... but that was also quite odd: the entire reason he was sent to Beacon by Blake was, according to her, the much more pleasant atmosphere and human-faunus relations.

So far, he was seeing little of both.

* * *

Humans were loud. Humans were _very_ loud. While the other students were preparing for bed or playing around, Adam had long since given up on the thought of actually going to sleep any time soon. Not only would the noise keep him awake, but he hadn't been able to get a good night's sleep with others being awake around him for years. The only exception to that was Blake and, as he snapped his Scroll shut, he was reminded once more of her absence. No new messages.

His back to the wall and his hands busying themselves with inspecting his crimson blade, Wilt, and his sheath-rifle, Blush, for even the slightest imperfection under the light of a nearby candle, Adam decided he would just need to wait until the others were asleep. Every last one of them. It was going to be a long night.

He'd already begun to push the din of humanity to the back of his mind, turning it into ambient noise fit to ignore. Being further back where many of the faunus had unofficially segregated themselves helped.

Restless sleep or perhaps none at all. What wonderful choices. The din grew louder: Adam supposed it would have to be no sleep, after all. It wouldn't be the first time. He carefully ran a cloth along the side of the blade—

"Hey, don't be a punk! Can't you see my sis is trying to talk to you!" Adam paused, becoming aware that the din had been calling to him, the entire time. To his agitation, there were now two girls in front of him: the clumsy one, Ruby, and... some other, much louder one.

"Really, Yang, it's fine, I don't really, _really_ need to talk to him, he's busy!" Though in her pajamas, the clumsy one was protesting against her apparent sister's actions and trying to drag her away, to no avail. Strange. The clumsy one had crimson hair fading to almost completely black at its roots, alabaster skin and silver eyes he'd never seen, before. The... _loud_ one now scowling at him, Yang, appeared to have blonde hair as ridiculously long as it would be dangerous to her in combat and lilac eyes. There appeared to be zero relation between them at all.

"See, Rubes! I got his attention for you!" She'd bounced from agitation to happiness awfully quick.

"Uh... hi! I'm Ruby, you know, from the explosion... followed you here..." Ruby trailed off under Adam's blank stare.

"What, are you too cool to talk to people, or something? Come on!" Still apparently annoyed with him, Yang snapped him out of his thoughts by leaning down and waving her hand in front of his eyes.

"I was busy." He returned to polishing Wilt, hopefully in peace, this time. Yang growled and turned to Ruby to say something, but by now, he had already pushed the noise back into ambience. Though, he could hear Yang mumbling something about 'jackass' under her breath as they walked away. Adam sighed, and ignored the little, Blake-sounding voice in his head reminding him that he was supposed to try and make friends.

"Is that an Akakuni?" Adam's gaze snapped up from his weapon. Ruby peered down at Adam with a curious smile.

He blinked. "Yes... yes it is, actually." It was rare enough for anyone in Mistral to recognize a blade forged by Akakuni, let alone anyone in Vale. The meaning behind his trademark crimson blades had quickly fallen by the wayside since his original withdrawal from the public. The world of weapons moved quickly.

"Ooh, I'm so jealous! I followed everything he did when I was younger, before he... y'know..." Died from an order sent to a gang gone wrong. Ruby leaned down as Adam raised an eyebrow. "Wait... a straight-edge sword? This must be one of his first, unless... it's a mecha-shifting weapon?" Her eyes widened as she spotted Blush. "A fire-propelled quickdraw-type? I take it back, this must've been one of his last works! How'd you get your hands on it! Where'd you find it? Are there more?" Any sense of being impressed rapidly faded back to agitation as Ruby got increasingly and uncomfortably closer with each question.

"You... certainly know a lot about weaponry." He narrowed his eyes. "And not a lot about personal space..." Adam grumbled, now all but pressing himself back into the wall with Ruby's sparkling eyes only a few inches away. She didn't get the hint until her supposed sister physically tugged her away.

"Yeaaah, don't mind her, she gets like this about every weapon." She held Ruby back as only more questions tumbled from her lips. "... I'm Yang, by the way!"

Adam warily looked between the two sisters. "I'm Adam," he drawled.

"And _I'm_ trying to sleep!" The shrill, frustrated and decidedly _Schnee_ voice broke through their conversations.

"Oh, not you again!" Ruby shouted. Adam sighed and sheathed his blade.

This was going to be a long night.

* * *

Scratch that, it was going to be a long _week_ , Adam thought as he was catapulted through the sky above the Emerald Forest. Everything about this sounded insane: find a partner who you will work well with, Ozpin says! Sensible, if only your partner for four years was not determined by who you first make eye contact with! Professor Ozpin was kindly and understanding, Blake claimed! 'Destroy everything in your path or _you will_ _die'_ did not sound particularly kind! It was not that Adam was incapable of doing so, but this would have been outrageous for _his_ cell, let alone these prissy Huntsmen!

With a gunfire-boosted draw of his blade, Adam sent himself whirling through the air and slashing through branches until he'd slowed enough for his aura to soften his fall. Right. First things first: locate and partner with someone who he wouldn't want to murder for what could be the next four years.

Adam was an honest man... to himself, anyway. He knew such a task might wind up more difficult than he thought.

He just didn't know _how_ much more difficult such a thing would be.

* * *

With negativity came the creatures of Grimm, and right now, Weiss was a _very_ negative person. Why shouldn't she be? Did the Schnee heiress' first day gain her friends? Allies? Maybe even just some knowledge on who some likely partners would be? No! She got nothing but hatred, anger and people literally coming out of nowhere for no purpose other than to make her day worse! It was like she was in Atlas all over again! Half of the reason she had even come to Beacon in the first place was that so she could make a fresh start and... as much as she loathed to admit it, actually make some friends, for once. At least Pyrrha Nikos seemed fond of her.

At least she wasn't _universally_ reviled.

Unfortunately, all of those dark feelings had invited Grimm to the little clearing she'd paused in: Weiss counted at least five Beowolves circling around her. They were sizing her up and looking for weaknesses. Fortunately, that give her the time to strike first!

Weiss darted forward under a swing from the largest of them and thrust her rapier forth in three swift jabs to the lead Beowolf's hide. Following the natural rhythm of battle, she flipped away from the Grimm's desperate swing and twirled. Decidedly not following the natural rhythm of battle, however, another Beowolf slapped her out of her spin and sent her skidding right back into the center of the ring of Grimm. They'd stopped, now, all kneeling low in preparation for combat. She had to remember her training...

Once more focusing the lead Beowolf, she turned Mrytenaster's cylinder until she found her red Dust and gathered her aura...

* * *

The sounds of ferocious combat from afar immediately drew Ruby's attention. Finally, she thought, she'd been searching for someone for what felt like forever, now! The roars of Grimm called to her like a beacon, and Ruby dashed in that direction as quickly as she could: she couldn't let her to-be-partner be stolen by someone else, after all! She kicked off of trees and sped up, soon spotting the signature white spikes of a powerful Grimm peeking out from between the brush.

Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose, cranked up her Semblance and kicked off a final tree for extra momentum. She had to take at least one down, or else they might see her as weak! With a ferocious battle cry—at least in her mind, anyway—she swung down at her target!

* * *

This search was going nowhere, Adam thought. It was not the matter of finding anyone that caused so much trouble, no, he could tell where these freshmen were from a mile away with how little stealth they tried to use. It was the matter of finding anyone worth partnering with! There really weren't that many faunus at all, in this class: unfortunately, the cheetah faunus from the airship had been picked up by some human who sounded disgusted he'd even caught sight of her. It took effort and the mental reminder that they were being watched to not have him have a little... _accident_ that would free her up. A little lovetap to the head would've been enough to knock him out. Blame it on a Grimm. He'd find another racist human partner later. Or die.

No big loss.

Speaking of humans, a boisterous mace-user shouting out for 'his bro Russel' as he laughed and smashed a Grimm's skull in did not look particularly pleasant. Nor did the odd redhead with a warhammer just sitting in the branches, humming, swinging her legs and perpetually scanning the horizon. Adam had no clue what she was looking for, especially since his attempt to question her was just met with a "Nope!" and not even a glance in his direction.

He could always just go to the temple alone and wait to see if anyone else had the same idea, Adam wondered. His thoughts were broken, however, by the low growls of Grimm, including at least one alpha, from the sounds of it. Upon listening closer, he could even hear the beginnings of combat: a student versus multiple Grimm and believing themselves capable enough to fight them alone? It was either suicidal or promising. Adam picked up the pace and jogged off in that direction.

The plan was simple: show off. Kill the alpha in a single blow and it should establish himself as a powerhouse to be followed and feared, and this would no doubt be something the instructors would notice as well. It would be an easy cruise towards leading a team. One of the Grimm came in sight as his jog turned into a full on run.

* * *

 _Now!_

Weiss glided at top speed towards the Beowolf, channeled her aura into her rapier, and nearly shouted out in surprise as a blur of a black and red shot out from nowhere and struck at the Grimm, landing right in her path. She stumbled and lost focus, turning her well-timed blow into a wave of flame that decimated a nearby tree and the dry grass surrounding it.

* * *

"What! You want some too?!" The Ursa reared up to meet Yang's challenge... and stood stock-still as a meaty _thunk_ resounded from its back. It slowly toppled over, revealing the crimson scythe embedded in its back and the grinning, giddy face of Ruby Rose.

"Hi, sis!"

* * *

"Have you lost your..." Weiss trailed off as the 'stranger' whipped the shadows from his blade and slowly sheathed it in unison with the falling halves of the now-bisected Alpha Beowolf. She winced and tried to look away as he turned to face her. She was too slow.

Emerald eyes met ice blue.

 _ **"You,"**_ they both growled.

It was going to be a long _month._

Surely, that would be how long it would take before Adam couldn't take being near his new 'partner' Weiss Schnee any longer.


	2. Black and White

**Black and White**

* * *

"Well, that would appear to be the last of our teams," huffed Glynda Goodwitch as she took her place beside Ozpin. Her neutral, exacerbated tone did little to hide the burning rage within. With their keen eyes and vantage point they held atop the launching grounds overlooking the landscape, they could see all within the Emerald Forest. Anything truly hidden beneath the canopies, however, could easily be watched from the black and gold, tablet-sized Scrolls they held in their hands. Suffice to say, nothing could escape their watch.

Goodwitch, however, was not focused on the forest, nor the potential students within it. She was busy burning a hole in the side of her boss' head with her glare. Ozpin appeared blissfully unaware of such a thing, sipping down the last of his hot chocolate and nodding to himself as the silver-eyed girl met up with her sister. Such was good: Ruby Rose was sure to be safe, now.

Alas, his ruminating would have to end. Glynda's glare could be ever so distracting when it was just at the edge of your peripheral vision.

Ozpin sighed, and spoke without turning his head. "Proceed, Glynda—"

"Have you lost your mind, Ozpin! Perhaps you may have seen enough potential in that Arc boy not to have Oobleck sweep him out of this forest in an instant, but, this?" She thrust her Scroll in his face like incriminating evidence. "Him?!" On her screen was a different pair: Weiss Schnee and Adam "Belladonna" circling one another with a swath of the forest burning behind them. Their words were muted, yet clearly biting. The latter looked like he was about to explode at any given moment. The former's cheeks were already red with indignation.

Ozpin already missed his hot chocolate.

"You've placed a literal _terrorist_ in our midst! It is not just Miss Schnee that is in danger but every student in that forest! How long do you think it'll be before he snaps, Ozpin, because it looks to me like if one of us doesn't step in _now_ we'll have the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company dead and a psychopath hiding on our campus!"

Seeing no way to avoid having to talk to the increasingly irate witch, Ozpin closed his eyes and sighed once more. "Have faith, Glynda. Our foes seem rather keen on turning allies into enemies, I'd say it's about time we consider the same. Besides, there is no such thing as pure evil. Dare I say it, not even Her." He paused. "Even so, I can assure you that I have numerous contingencies for if I am wrong." He didn't like admitting it, but, he was no stranger to the concept. He could only hope this was not going to become one of his many mistakes.

As Ozpin changed the view of his Scroll to match Glynda's, he decided praying would perhaps be better suited.

* * *

"If you think I would ever want to be on a team with you, then you must have lost your mind!" the Schnee girl shouted at Adam as they circled one another like a pair of predators. Both of their eyes searched for even a single sign of weakness. The growing forest fire burned far away from them both, yet the scent of burning pine still filled their senses.

"Leave, then. Be my guest! I would _love_ to have you get thrown out of this place. After all, it isn't as if there aren't any instructors watching and grading our every move and would see you flagrantly throwing the rules aside, right? But, please, it's not like something as silly as rules and law would ever stop a Schnee from getting their way, right, Princess?" Adam scoffed.

"Like a barbarian such as yourself should be so judgemental! You can scarcely even follow the rules of combat: we are _meant_ to strike in turn, not leap in each others' way!"

" 'Strike in turn'? Do you really think the Beowolves would just sit there and look pretty like one of your pathetic androids while you do so? Maybe if you spent more time actually practicing as you did shrieking about things not going your way, you'd be a fighter worth a damn! Stick to your training dummies and stay out of my way."

The Schnee took a sharp breath, eyes flaring and fists clenching as she stormed towards him. Adam gladly did the same until they'd met in the middle of the circle they'd been treading, barely inches away from one another.

"I'll have you know that I have trained and prepared for this day more than you can even fathom! Those flames could have killed you!" She jabbed a finger at him. Adam harshly slapped her hand away. The Schnee winced, and he scowled.

"In your dreams, perhaps. You can scarcely take down a single Beowolf: whatever training you had was clearly not enough." He jabbed a finger back into her chest. "You should've stayed in Atlas, just like _dear old sister_." Adam stormed off into the forest with a flick of his coat. He couldn't help but smirk as he heard the Schnee's scream of rage and felt the wave of fire decimate a tree beside him.

Unseen by either, a single feather larger than either of them slowly settled atop the felled, burning tree. With negativity comes Grimm.

Adam and Weiss were currently two _**very**_ negative people.

* * *

"Ruuuby, did you hunt me down?" Yang asked her in the best 'big sister' voice she could muster as the Ursa faded away into black miasma. With her best 'little sister' puppy eyes that Ruby could muster, she mumbled:

"Maybe a little..." Yang tried to glare at her, but, even after so many years, trying to fight back against those puppy eyes was still an exercise in futility.

She groaned. "Aw, come on, Rubes, I thought I told you that you should've tried to partner with someone else!" Yang tried to chastise her, but just couldn't wipe the grin off of her face: who was she kidding? It only took her the time between being launched and landing before she'd tried to search Ruby out, herself. Try as she might, she didn't think she'd be letting her little sis go any time soon.

"Too late, now!" Ruby said in a sing-song voice and skipped up to Yang's side as they made their way through the forest.

Yang just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I get it, I'm still mad, though..." The snarls of Grimm from ahead got their attention. Two Beowolves crept out from the brush. They were young, with bone plating uneven and spaced out across their furry forms. That just made it all the more annoying to Ruby when Yang not-so-subtly stepped in front of her and deployed her gauntlets.

"Sooo, can I blame you for this, then?" Ruby asked with a snicker. She stepped back and twirled Crescent Rose in her hands, but Yang already jumped into the fray. She didn't even get a shot off before Yang got rid of them.

"Yaaang! I want to fight too!" Ruby complained as they walked on.

Yang just brushed it off with her usual grin. "What's wrong with wanting to protect your little sister?"

"I don't _need_ protecting, I'm big and strong already!" Ruby got the slightest feeling that, maybe, Yang didn't want Ruby to join another team just for her sake alone.

* * *

"You know the temple was to the _right,_ don't you?" Of course the first words the Schnee said to him after they finished their last argument would be another challenge.

"Those were rocks." Adam rubbed his temples: sometimes, he didn't miss that mask of his at all.

"You never even checked, they could have had vital clues on them!"

"There haven't been clues anywhere else, I don't see how there would be any clues now."

"Because the first clue has to be _somewhere_!"

Adam finally stopped in another clearing and glared down at the Schnee. "Are you incapable of ever actually admitting to being wrong?"

She jerked back in surprise at Adam's sudden question, then growled. "Excuse me? I'm just trying to help and you're insulting me?"

"Perhaps it's because I'm sick and tired already of hearing you act like you know everything!" Adam hissed. The Schnee trembled with anger and frustration before asking something Adam did not actually expect:

"Just what did I do to you, anyway?! The only thing you've even done is insult me since before we even met! So, have I done something to you in the past, or are you just that arrogant and socially inept with everyone?" Mainly because that was the dumbest question he had heard from her, does she mean 'what has she done'? Could she not see the horns on his head?

"What kind of question is that? Are you blind? Can't you see the hor..." Oh. Right. She _couldn't_ see his horns. Because he was wearing a _stupid hat._  
"... horrible damage your family has done to this world?" He gritted his teeth through his narrow save.

"Oh, you're one of _those._ The ruffians who believe everything they hear about the Schnee family because they refuse to do some thinking and admit just how silly those claims are." The Schnee dismissively waved him off and turned around to look for the way to the temple. Astounded and incensed alike by her sheer ignorance, Adam just cocked his head to one side. "Let me guess, head a little too deep in those faunus-sympathizer books?" He barely recognized the soft click his blade made as he pushed it from its sheath.

He had to get away from her. He had to get away before he did something that he would... alright, well, he wasn't going to regret it, but someone, somewhere might, and that counted enough.

"Do some research and actually educate yourself some time, maybe you'll figure out just how biased the people speaking against the Schnee family really are!" So absorbed in herself, the Schnee clearly didn't the hatred growing in his eyes. And then, like the hands of some merciful god reaching down, Adam had the wind knocked out of him and found himself careening through the air.

"Besides, I'm not my family, anyway, so I would appreciate—" She jumped in surprise at the sudden rush of wind and flicker of black in the corner of her eye. Whipping around, Weiss was left staring up as Adam was flying off in the sky... in the clutches of a giant Nevermore.

He didn't exactly appear displeased by this turn of events.

* * *

"Huh, that was easy!" Yang said as they pushed out of the brush and found themselves standing in front of the temple. At least, it might've been a temple a long time ago: standing atop a hill, the stone structure had been reduced to little more than a circular set of old, moss-covered pillars and broken, stone ground. Pedestals holding black and gold chess pieces sat in the center. Some were empty: others had already been here.

"Aw, not easy enough for us to be first, though..." Ruby wandered up to the pedestals and looked them over. Her eyes lit up as they fell on a golden knight. "Ooh, a pony! And it's in your color, too, sis!" She snatched it off and turned to Yang. Whatever she was about to say, though, was cut off by a high-pitched scream sounding off from deeper in the forest.

"Oh, no! Some girl's in trouble! Yang, what should we do?" Ruby looked over towards where the scream had come from. Yang... didn't say anything. "Yang?" She shook Yang's shoulder. "Hello? Remnant to Yang?" Yang tapped her shoulder and pointed up at the sky. Namely, the gigantic Nevermore soaring right for them.

"... Oh."

* * *

The Schnee actually followed him. Adam was almost impressed.

"Are you insane! What kind of idea was this?!" Almost as impressed as he was with the Schnee being so loud he could still hear her voice while atop of a Nevermore. While being forced into a partnership with a Schnee made the sweet release of death increasingly appetizing, Adam had decided he wasn't going to allow a mere Grimm to claim him. Wriggling and climbing had left him able to crawl his way to the top of the beast, where he now kneeled.

"A smart one! I can already see the temple from here!" He had buried Wilt into its hide, yanking it like a pilot would a joystick and with about the same effect on the flying beast, albeit with more screeching from the Grimm. "We'll be fine!" He paused. The Schnee, on the other hand, was left holding onto one of its feathers for dear life. "I'll be fine," Adam corrected himself. He was having way too much fun with this to be safe.

" _You'll_ be fine?! What about me?!" She let out a scream when, with a jerk of his blade, Adam turned the Nevermore towards the temple below. He looked behind him with a vicious smirk.

"If you have such a problem with it, just jump, like I'm about to!" Unfortunately, he couldn't see the look on the Schnee's face when he yanked his blade out and was gone with the wind before the situation even clicked in her mind. Adam could, however, hear the last thing she shouted to him:

"WHAT?!" Ah, petty victories, indeed. Turning in the skies with one hand smashing his hat down against his head and the other gripping his weapon, Adam let out a dark laugh unheard in the rushing wind. Maybe it was just a coping mechanism or just being filled with so much pent up anger that it had overflowed back into neutrality, but Adam was feeling like perhaps things would not be so bad at Beacon, after all. Well, until his petty victories couldn't fuel him any longer, but that was easily months away... weeks... he could last a few days.

Too busy in his thoughts, Adam didn't notice the screaming student flying through the air right towards him until he'd already been smashed into the canopy of a tree. His blade was already drawn and pointed at his attacker before he could think, mind flying back to his White Fang instincts, but a girly shriek snapped him back to the sad reality of just being a student. A student with his blade at the neck of another one. Right. Probably shouldn't do that.

"C-c-come on, man, it was just an accident, I swear! Let's not get crazy, a-alright?" The mystery boy, left hanging upside down from the branches above, panicked and waved his arms about enough so that Adam had to sheath his blade just so he wouldn't cut himself on it. Wait... no, this wasn't a mystery boy at all. He remembered him from the airship. The one Ruby was speaking to. This was—

"Vomit Boy," he stated dryly.

Vomit Boy brought an arm up—well, down, Adam supposed—to protest, then sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, that's me. Do you think you could maybe, I don't know, cut me down? Kinda stuck here."

Adam ignored Vomit Boy to scan the horizon and the temple both. He paused when he saw Ruby waving to him and Yang looking faintly annoyed at his violent response. Before he could recognize Ruby's attempt to hail him, however, a deafening roar came from the forest. A massive Ursa came stumbled out of the bushes, letting out a final, defiant cry before collapsing, dead. The odd, redheaded hammer girl was riding atop its back, carrying along a trembling boy in green clearly born in Mistral. That must've been who she was waiting for in the first place. According to said Mistralian human's request for her to never do that again, her name was Nora.

And according to Nora's sheepish reply when he shouted at her for just running off, her partner's name was Ren. Nora didn't care much for Ren's yelling, however, for she'd bounced back to giddy glee and darted off to grab one of the relics—chess pieces, it seemed—and loudly proclaim herself 'queen of the castle'.

Adam pointed back at Vomit Boy with his thumb. "Does anyone know how he got here in the first place?" Not even a second after the words left his mouth, a scorpion Grimm so ancient that its scarred and pockmarked plate had begun to accrue moss and grass bowled over the trees surrounding the forest temple, scuttling towards the more immediately familiar figure of Pyrrha Nikos. She dived and jumped between pincers that were easily twice her size. Even such a legend in the arena, however, was not a match for a creature as ancient as this Death Stalker.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha called out towards the boy, who wriggled all the harder to try and escape his embarrassing predicament.

Yang opened her mouth to speak.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted back. Taking some pity on him, Adam sliced away the branch Jaune was hanging on as he leaped away. Adam landed on his feet. Jaune landed on his face. He cracked a smile that betrayed his growing annoyance with all the yelling.

Yang, agitated, tried once more to say something.

"Adam!" Being screamed from the heiress still clinging onto the Nevermore circling in the skies.

"Uh, Yang? Problem!" Ruby started tapping at Yang's shoulder insistently and pointing back up the sky, not noticing just how angry her sister was getting by the second. Adam was no better: these humans were just so _loud!_

"Nora!" Nora shouted happily.

 **"** **Enough!"** Adam roared loud enough to get even the Death Stalker's attention. Coincidentally, it was also the last straw for Yang, who picked up right where he left off:

"Can't you all stay quiet for two seconds before something _else_ crazy happens?!" Her demand was made all the more compelling by the flames that burst to life around her. She got her wish: about two seconds of quiet.

"Adam! How could you just leave me up here?!" shouted the Schnee in disbelief as she clung on to the Nevermore's sharp talon and slipped further and further off by the second. While everyone else's eyes were aimed at the skies, Adam strolled over towards the temple.

"Quite easily!" he called behind his shoulder as he picked up a golden knight. Unorthodox, yet powerful and easy to be underestimated, much like the faunus themselves.

"She's gonna fall," Yang pointed out to Adam with some agitation at his callousness. Adam glanced over his shoulder, did a quick appraisal of the Schnee's condition, then waved his hand dismissively and looked back at his chess piece.

"She'll be fine. Maybe."

"Aaand she's falling." Ren said with no worry at all in his voice. Maybe he wasn't alone on this dislike of the Schnee after all, Adam wondered. Jaune suddenly scrambled up to his feet and stumbled forward looking for the falling heiress. Since his eyes were occupied with the ground, however, he didn't know her exact location.

Weiss landed on Jaune's back. Jaune landed on his face. Again. It was around the time that Pyrrha was sent flying into the dirt right next to him that the group remembered there was a very angry, very large Death Stalker currently hunting them.

"Great, the gang's all here! Now, we can die together!" Yang proclaimed with far more glee than this situation warranted.

Adam snorted. "Or, we can fight. We outnumber it eight to one." The Nevermore screeched. "Four to one," Adam amended as if that was meaningless.

To him, it was, anyway: even for a bunch of first years, it would be an arduous task but one that could be achieved with only the chance of a fatality. With a prodigy such as Pyrrha Nikos and a Huntsman-level fighter like himself, that would turn 'chance of a fatality' into 'chance of casualties'. More than acceptable for this environment. Much more important to Adam, however, were two things:

One, he loved showing off.

Two, he loved a dramatic battle.

Nora and Ruby seemed to recognize such a thing, at least, the latter all but jumping at the bit to get a swing at the gigantic Grimm. The other students... not so much.

"I don't know, Adam, I wouldn't want any of us getting hurt..." Yang offered as protest, but, from the way she subtly moved in front of Ruby, it was clear she meant that she didn't want her _sister_ getting hurt. Ruby, however, had other plans. She must've noticed her sister trying to defend her, too, for, with a pout and steeling of her eyes, she nudged past her.

"He's right, though! We can totally take it on! I've fought worse!" She reminded him a lot of Blake when she was younger: brash, hardheaded, getting into trouble all the time...

"Oh, really? When?" Yang crossed her arms.

"Uh, guys, it's getting closer..." Jaune mumbled.

"All the more reason to attack now!" Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose and grinned. "I'm going in!"

"Ruby, that thing might really hurt you!"

"I'd like to see it _try!_ " With a 'battle cry' more befitting a kitten—and Adam should know—Ruby took off for the scorpion Grimm alone, firing from her sniper rifle-scythe for extra speed. It was all for naught: if Pyrrha Nikos couldn't challenge it alone, Ruby didn't stand a chance. One swing of its mighty pincer, and Ruby was smashed right into the ground by the Death Stalker's mighty pincer, just like Pyrrha was. She groaned and pushed herself back to her feet, panting already: it must have knocked the wind right out of her.

"D-don't worry! Totally fine!" As a testament to how little a threat the Death Stalker saw her as, it only crept forward, curiously chattering at her. Ruby gasped as she turned to find it only a few inches away from its face. She made the mistake of opening fire on the beast, but the shell didn't even mark its heavily armored exoskeleton. Adam could see the panic start to set in: not just in her eyes, but in those of her sister. Yang ran after her.

Perhaps she would have made it, if the fear of losing a loved one hadn't drawn the Nevermore's attention. One flap of its wings, and what was once a straight and clear path for both Yang and Ruby to run to each other became a maze of giant feathers as sharp as blades and thick as streetlights. One caught Ruby's cloak, pinning her in place. A second struck Yang, blowing her right back to where she started. Waiting for this moment, the Death Stalker grew closer. All the while, the group only watched, some in horror, Adam, in disinterest.

He briefly noticed the Schnee glare back at them all before readying her blade, but his focus was on the carnage about to play out. This was not his business. Saving humans simply was not something he felt he needed to do: surely, Beacon expected casualties.

His grip on Wilt and Blush subconsciously tightened. That desire to just dive into her job, Ruby's utter naivety and willingness to prove herself at any and every opportunity, however, all kept digging up memories of Blake when they were younger. Happier. When she needed someone to watch out for her, so that she wouldn't go and hurt herself in the cruel world. Old instincts Adam thought were long dead began to resurface.

Frightened, silver eyes looked back at him. All Adam could see was startled, pleading amber.

Black and white traveled past Yang in a blur.

The Death Stalker's stinger fell.

Ruby closed her eyes.

* * *

Ozpin smiled. "Do you see now, Glynda? It's said that to even have an aura, a soul must have yin and yang. Light and dark."

* * *

Death did not come. Ruby dared to peek an eye open, and the world rushed back to her: the Death Stalker thrashed to and fro, screeching in pain and flailing its now-stingerless tail in a frenzy. It tried to lunge at them, yet a wall of ice was encasing its pincer, locking it in place.

Adam flicked the black ichor from his blade and sheathed it. The detached stinger laid embedded in the ground ahead of him.

Weiss pulled her rapier up from her stark-white glyph that surrounded the ice pinning the Death Stalker in place.

* * *

"Black and white."


	3. A Long Year

**A Long Year**

* * *

"You really are childish," Weiss chastised Ruby as she flicked the dirt from her rapier.

"Utterly foolish," Adam added. Whereas Weiss was loud and emotional, Adam's words were dry and stoic as he kept an eye on the trapped Grimm.

"Dimwitted!" Weiss continued. Ruby, however, was pretty sure she saw relief in her eyes. She kept her hood down to look guilty and hide the smile on her face: their words were harsh, but, that sounded like two new best friends to her!

"Shortsighted." Adam adjusted his hat, trying his hardest to make sure that Ruby couldn't see the relief on his own face.

"Honestly, what would you have done without us?" Weiss leaned down to be eye level with Ruby. Suddenly, she had to wipe that smile off of her face in an instant, left stuttering with an embarrassed blush and her gaze darting to everywhere except for the heiress in front of her.

"I-I, well, uh..." Ruby couldn't get another word out before she was smothered in a bear hug from Yang, leaving her words little more than muffled.

She shot a glare over her little sister's shoulder at the two. "Hey, lay off, would you! She nearly died!"

Weiss huffed, crossed her arms and stalked off, Adam following suit. "Ungrateful brute," she muttered. Ruby managed to lift her head up and mumble a tiny thanks. With Weiss gone, however, Yang turned her glare down at her little sister, and that crushing hug of hers suddenly became a lot less friendly.

"So, just what were ya thinking there, Rubes? Showing off?" Her pleasant tone was betrayed by her burning, red eyes.

Ruby chuckled nervously and—unsuccessfully—tried to wriggle out of the death grip. "It wasn't showing off! I just..." she sighed. "I wanted to show you that I didn't need to be protected."

"Yeah, good job on that, sis." Yang tussled Ruby's hair, earning a pouty whine from her. "Besides, you could be the strongest Huntress in the world and I'd still be worried about you: you're my little sister!" She squeezed Ruby one more time and jogged back to the group. Ruby might not have been entirely sure they believed in her, just yet, but, her fears were alleviated.

* * *

By the time they'd returned to the rest of the group, a problem was already beginning to surface. "So... what're we going to do? That thing is circling around, again!" Jaune asked and waved up at the Nevermore circling above: it looked like it was waiting for another time to strike. It was intelligent, and that didn't bode well.

"Well, our last attempts at fighting them went oh-so-well," Weiss said, "so, just maybe, we should try a different strategy: we all have our pieces, don't we? Let's just go!" she suggested. Ruby, Nora and Adam held up their relics. Jaune looked hurriedly between them and then zipped off to grab one for himself and Pyrrha.

"She's right," Ruby agreed, "our mission is to take the artifact and get back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting the Grimm, here." Ruby put it in less... bossy terms to the other half of their now eight-man team. Adam silently nodded in agreement, and Yang clapped a hand on her sister's shoulder, beaming with pride.

"Let's go, then!" Yang cheered and with Ruby at her side, the two led the rest of the team forward. Weiss and Adam remained a few steps behind, both unknowingly sharing the same thought: it was rather odd, being ordered by a fifteen year old and her sister.

"By the way, I had that handled." Weiss shot at Adam.

He scoffed. "I didn't know 'handled' meant a second away from one of you being killed."

* * *

The site the relics were on was only the beginning of the absolutely massive complex the temple took up. Even after minutes of running, the ruins of ancient buildings walled them in on both sides and left trees as their only cover, and by the time they reached the foggy cliffs themselves, the trees had just run out. Always visible if only as a stretching shadow on the ground, the Nevermore followed above them, then soared high into the air and perched itself atop a grand tower. Multiple stories high, this must have been the _true_ temple.

It screeched out a challenge that shook the trees. The way ahead was now neatly cut off.

"Hmph. So much for not fighting the Grimm," the Schnee grumbled. Adam gained a wide smirk just as the forest behind them exploded into black and white: the Death Stalker was back. With a snort and shake of her head, the heiress readied her rapier. "Of course _you_ would enjoy this." She said with faint disdain, even though the edge of her mouth curled up.

"Don't think I can't see that smile of yours," Adam said. Caught red-handed, the Schnee turned away.

A Nevermore resting atop a foggy temple stretching towards the heavens above and the abyss below on one side, and a vengeful Death Stalker running at them from the other. No escape, no retreat, only victory and defeat.

Oh, how he loved a dramatic battle.

"Go!" Ruby shouted.

Nora transformed her warhammer into a grenade launcher, and brought down explosive covering fire while the teams ran towards the temple, hoping to make it to the stone bridge connecting their cliff to the rest of the complex before the Death Stalker could reach them. Unfortunately, she was too busy shooting at the Nevermore to remember that there was a Death Stalker running right for her. Ren leaped in its path, but, neither as fast as Ruby nor as tough as Pyrrha, he was knocked into his partner with one swipe of its pincer, bowling them both over. If it were up to Adam, he would have left them there: even if they died to it, six versus a Nevermore and a wounded Death Stalker was still good odds.

Unfortunately, Weiss leaped forward to pull Nora out on one of her glyphs. Adam had no choice but to follow suit, flashing forward to grab Ren and back to the cliff in the blink of an eye. The only thing connecting them to the temple the Nevermore stood perched on was a long, ancient bridge of stone down a flight of steps. The others were racing along it, with more than enough room to fit three of them side by side.

Adam unceremoniously pulled Ren to his feet and pushed him towards it. "Start moving," he ordered. He steadied his hand and slowly marched backwards down the steps. The Grimm advanced. An ancient Death Stalker with minor wounds while he had to attempt to not make the full extent of his skills known. Were his specialty not swiftness and single strikes, this would be a nigh-impossible battle to face alone.

Adam grinned. Unfortunately for the Death Stalker, it was. "Keep going!" he shouted behind him. "I'll hold it back until you can get a position for fire support!"

"As if I'd let you get all the credit." The Schnee came up to his side, rapier forward and eyes hardened. Adam scowled. Right. He'd forgotten about the little princess. That didn't excuse the fact that he had given an order! Adam turned to shout her down when a chunk of the bridge behind them exploded: he'd forgotten about the Nevermore, as well. Even under withering gunfire it was able to cut off their way of escape by ramming right into the path itself. Now, it was himself and the Schnee on one side, and the other six battling the Nevermore.

Good odds.

Just as the pieces of the bridge crumbled away, the Death Stalker lunged onto the stairs and slammed its pincer between the two, separating them when they dodged. The Grimm was waiting for that. They were cooperating.

Not-so-good odds.

The Death Stalker's eyes focused on him. There was a gleam of recognition in its eyes and, with far more speed than anything of its size should have, it swung its claw at him.

Decidedly not great odds.

Adam rolled back and punished it with a lightning-fast swipe at its joint, causing the Death Stalker to screech and skitter backwards. Even on the backfoot, however, with its speed and heavy armor, it was able to fend off the attacks of he and the Schnee both, returning every bolt of Dust or stab of a blade with a jab carrying the force of a car.

From the other side of the gap, Ruby turned away from the Nevermore to watch this. She spun Crescent Rose and aimed it behind herself. "We've gotta help them!" she called to Yang.

"... Do we have to?"

"Yaaang!"

"Alright, alright, I'm coming!" With a shot from Ruby's scythe and a shotgun blast from Yang's gauntlets, the two easily made it over the gap and just in front of Adam and Weiss. The latter stumbled and found herself firing an errant ray of fiery Dust for a second time, that day.

"I _told_ you all to stay back! Go!" Adam shouted.

"We have this perfectly handled!" The heiress punctuated her claim by raising a glyph and blocking another swing of the Grimm's mighty pincer.

"... Actually, help would be appreciated!" Adam immediately contradicted the Schnee, causing her to look in his direction in abject confusion. Thoughts and questions on how he was literally just ordering them to leave swam in her head and fell away just as quickly when she noticed the slim smirk on his face. He'd done it solely just to contradict her, in the first place. With a huff, the heiress went off to prove herself right on her own, rushing past Ruby and colliding rapier-first with the next strike the Grimm tried to make. Its claw didn't make her budge an inch, only serving to form a crack in its own plate.

Ruby and Yang glanced between one another: maybe Weiss was telling the truth, after all. It certainly didn't hurt that theory when the Death Stalker unleashed a torrent of acidic ichor from its torn tail at Adam in a surprise attack that should have caught any of them off-guard, but Adam only flipped out of the way, landing on Weiss' side of the bridge.

"Oookay, I guess we'll take the left, then!" Ruby spun her scythe in a flashy whirl of crimson, slammed it down into the bridge and opened fire on the Grimm's massive mask. Yang followed suit, leaving eruptions of light and fire bursting to life all across the Grimm. Combined with Weiss raining down rays of ice-blue Dust and Adam lashing out with waves of crimson following every swipe, the Grimm was swiftly obscured by a shroud of fog and smoke both. The shroud was still.

"Alright, good work, girls—and Adam! Come on, let's go make sure Jaune and the others are—" Ruby's cheers and new orders were abruptly silenced by the mist exploding into action that nearly threw Adam off the bridge in an instant. Left gripping onto the bridge's edge with one hand, he swung the other over and struggled to pull himself back up just as the Grimm stormed through the fog to finish them off.

(Un)fortuntely, the Schnee brought up a forcefield of Dust strong enough to protect her from an errant swipe of its tail, only pushing her back to the edge with the rest of the four. Only a single crack was on its face: their attacks weren't getting through at all.

"None of this is working," Adam stated the obvious. "Aim for a mobility kill, start targeting its—"

"I've got a plan!" Ruby shouted over him as the Death Stalker swiped not at them, but the base of the bridge itself. One blow was all it took to make it crack. She looked at him and nodded to the Grimm as it rose its other pincer high. Adam gritted his teeth, agitated at being so quickly ignored, but, he had no choice but to move: no one else besides her was quick enough to. One step and he was sliding across the bridge to intercept the next strike from the Death Stalker on his half-drawn blade. It took a significant amount of aura to keep himself on the bridge, and even more to repulse the claw in time to slash down its other.

The next thing Adam saw was Ruby soaring through the air shouting with rage... and with her weapon folded up on her back. The first word of his complaint hadn't even left his mouth before the Death Stalker whacked her with its tail, and her battle cry turned into a yelp as she was left clutched onto it for dear life. That fool! He sheathed his blade and prepared to cut the stinger down even shorter when Ruby called out behind her:

"Yang, now!" Propelled by Weiss' glyph and her shotgun gauntlets both, Yang nearly threw Adam to the ground by jumping off of his back. She reached her peak, fired her gauntlets behind her once more, and came back down on the Grimm's head fist-first. With a mighty roar, the Death Stalker recoiled and whipped its tail back with tremendous force.

Ruby let go, and was off like a crimson comet.

"I would have preferred some warning!" Adam shouted. Supported by bolts of ice Dust from the Schnee, Adam slashed at the claws trying to grab at Yang as she punched away, but, to no avail: one finally found purchase and threw her into the bridge hard enough to crack it. She flipped herself up with a confident smirk, not a hair out of place.

"Sorry, bud! A Ruby plan doesn't have time for those!" Yang blasted the Death Stalker's claw away from the bridge once more. Enraged, it spat another stream of ichor from its stinger only to have it deflected by a glowing glyph.

"What _is_ her plan, anyway!" Weiss called.

* * *

Where was it, where was it, where was it! Flying over the treetops and propelled by shots of her Crescent Rose, Ruby scanned the landscape for the key to her entire plan. There it was!

Embedded in the ground and surrounded by shards of melting ice was the glowing tip of the Death Stalker's stinger. Channeling all her aura into her upper body, she fired herself forward and swung her scythe into it with all her might. The jarring impact nearly threw her scythe away, but Ruby pressed on and put all of her momentum into a mighty twist that dragged the stinger out of the ground. She spun, released her blade so it could fold back, and hurled the stinger high into the skies with all the force she was once traveling.

Alright! Easy part done! And now for the... much more tiring part. With all of that speed and momentum thrown into the stinger, Ruby had to put her semblance to work to keep up, and was soon little more than a long trail of red painted onto the air itself darting between trees.

* * *

"This! Adam, gimme a lift!" Yang suddenly called and jumped towards him. Having been in a military unit, Adam's body had already moved before he could even think on why: he brought his sheathed blade up and the second Yang dropped her foot onto the hilt, fired Wilt and sent all that energy into Yang. Adding her own shotgun gauntlets into the mix, she was sent flying up into the skies towards some glowing object spinning in the air. Instinct told him he needed to move at the same time he realized it was the Death Stalker's stinger. Snatching Wilt from the air, he backflipped over a barrage of gleaming rays of Dust-borne energy aimed right for the Grimm's deadly pincers. When they struck, however, they did not deal any damage to the being; instead, they formed massive, glowing rings that locked it in place.

With all the force—and noise, for that matter—of a bomb, Yang hammered the stinger down into the Death Stalker's head at the peak of her jump. With nowhere to go and no way to move, it could only screech in rage as its armored head nearly buckled shattered from the force. Unfortunately, the destruction spread to the bridge, as well: deep cracks webbed across its entirety. The bridge was on its last legs.

Above, the crimson comet returned, unfurling when it passed Yang in midair for a high-five before the two struck the ground: Yang in safety behind the Death Stalker, and Ruby skidding to a halt right beside him and the Schnee. Panting, the heiress pressed the tip of her rapier towards the ground, lighting up the crumbling path with glyphs just as the Death Stalker shattered its bonds. A final, massive one in black formed itself just behind the Grimm, and Adam could feel its pull.

He looked towards the freed and furious Grimm, then turned to Weiss. "Ladies first," he said with a smirk and bow. The Schnee didn't even look at him, instead turning the cylinder on her weapon until it began to glow red. Smirking, she let the glyphs take her away, those on the ground speeding her up until she was only a white blur. The explosive impact not only pierced through the Death Stalker's head entirely, but destroyed its faceplate in an blast of flame and, using her rapier as leverage, the Schnee flipped herself onto a glyph and flew back towards Yang.

Ruby was next, barely visible moving even to Adam: one second the girl was there and the next, her scythe, turning straight and into a true polearm, had run the Death Stalker's head almost all the way through. She curled up around her weapon, folded it back into a scythe, and with a last wave to Adam, fired herself off to safety as well.

Pieces broke away from the bridge and fell into the mist until the only signs entire sections even existed were the glyphs hovering over them. Adam let out a huff: surprised as he was at how devastating those three girls could be, it didn't make it any less annoyed to be left with scraps. How cruel. However, that didn't mean he couldn't make it flashy! Pushing all of his aura into his blade and his own natural speed, Adam crouched down, slowly unsheathed his blade—

The world turned red, and Adam was silhouetted on the other side, blade still trailing black from where it'd cut entirely through the weakened Grimm. He whipped the dark ichor away and slowly began to sheathe his blade once more, not as much seeing as _feeling_ the wound across the Death Stalker's form glow and burn away into his signature wilting flowers.

Yang whistled. "Well, that was a thing!" Wilt locked itself in place with a satisfying _click_ , and, just on time, a veritable geyser of rose petals burst out from the scorpion's mortal wounds, some fluttering and scattering in the breeze, others soon turning black and falling into the mist. The bridge fully collapsed with it, and the world regained its color.

"And I thought Ruby was the show-off." The Schnee just had to ruin it for him.

"The art of dramatic timing is no laughing matter," Adam huffed. He'd spent months of training and gathering experience just to perfect it! Indulgent? Yes. Wasteful? Yes. Worth it? _Absolutely._ But, he supposed, not everyone could appreciate the fine arts. Adam sighed and turned to face the rest of what he supposed he could temporarily call his 'team'. The three looked more... shocked, than anything, that they had even won the battle in the first place. And with barely a scratch. Basking in the glow of victory, the group had briefly even forgotten that there was a second battle raging just behind them. Ruby finally broke the silence by clearing her throat and asking:

"Soooo, uh... should we go help Jaune and his friends?" As if to answer her, a great peal of thunder erupted form above, and the ancient Nevermore was sent crashing through the entirety of the temple tower like it were made of plywood. Nora's cackling filled the air shortly after.

"They'll be fine," the Schnee dryly replied.

Adam supposed it could be worse.

* * *

He was wrong.

He was _so_ wrong.

Without the adrenaline and anger guiding him, reality was crashing down on Adam like a bucket of ice-cold water. He stared blankly up at the ceiling, moonlight slipping through the curtains into his dormitory. His dorm shared with a Schnee, the boisterous blonde, and her—as he quickly learned—fifteen year old sister. Who was now the leader of Team Rua, or 'Team RWAY'.

What was Ozpin thinking? He was more trained than even the Schnee! He'd personally helped save her life! Even according to his transcripts, he was _four years_ Ruby's elder! Without it, he'd been a major, a leader of an entire terrorist cell that struck fear into the hearts of countless humans. Now, one of those very humans commanded him? Adam Taurus, former leader and founded of the entire Vale branch of the White Fang?!

And the worst part? The worst part of it all? He was certain that when he looked at Ozpin on that stage, he was smirking at him.

The Schnee sighed softly and shifted in her sleep. Nevermind. New worst part: remembering that he was in the same room as a Schnee. He could hear her breathing, hear the slight fidgeting in the cold night, and know she was not just alive, but would continue to be. It was his job, now, to protect her, when it was his duty to strangle her in her sleep. His lieutenant would kill him right then and there for letting that Schnee take even a single calm breath near him.

Right now, Adam felt like he would gladly refuel and rev up that chainsaw of his for him.

His entire livelihood was given up for this: under the command of a fifteen year old so he could protect a Schnee, desperately trying to grasp at sleep held just out of his reach, no doubt brought ever higher by Yang's soft snoring or Ruby's occasional mumbling of sweets and family under her breath that were spaced out by minutes, yet in this tumultuous time felt incessant. What had Blake talked him into?

Speaking of which, the fact that Blake once again could not be reached left himself as the only person he could complain to. So, childish as it was, he did the only thing he could think of: Adam pressed his pillow against his face and tried not to scream himself to sleep. To an outsider, the room was almost completely silent. To Adam, it was a deafening choir. Simmering in his own hate, he fell into a restless sleep, listening to that choir sing to him of how this stood against everything he'd ever fought for.

Yet, why could he not bring himself to do anything about it?

Never did he notice Weiss curl up just a little tighter beneath the covers on the other side of the room. Such silent contempt did not escape her notice: she had suffocated from it at that dreaded home of hers for years. Ozpin claimed it would be an interesting year. Right. As far as Weiss was concerned, this was just like home sweet home, nothing 'interesting' about it. She'd come here to escape that frozen prison. To escape the loneliness. Weiss scowled.

Why did she ever think this place would be different?

* * *

The shattered Moon lingered high in the night sky as renowned crime lord Roman Torchwick looked over his maps of Vale in the safety of a warehouse. Each shelf laid empty, but clean, waiting for the day it'd be full to the breaking point. Right now, however, only a few sparse shelves were full of various crates and boxes, each carrying a deadly payload: Dust.

In truth, this was a significant part of the civilian market. Roman, however, wasn't pleased. It wasn't nearly enough, and that was a problem. On his map laid many shops that sold Dust. Almost all of them were crossed out: a target hit, or too hot to ever return to. The market was collapsing. As his new 'boss' would put it, 'just as planned.'

Just as planned. Roman scoffed and lit himself a cigar. What a load. Try as this mysterious 'Cinder Fall' might, he knew what she really wanted: the ten crystals laid out in front of him as paperweights. Yellow Dust and purple Dust, and not just any kind of yellow Dust, only the most _pure_ of them. Crystals pure enough to perform time dilation. He was no scientist, but, any experiment that needed to control time and space was one he didn't want near him.

Unsurprisingly, such reasons were just some of many why all of these small time shops were useless. No mom and pop store was going to sell Huntsmen-grade Dust crystals en masse, it was ludicrous! This Cinder Fall wouldn't know a good plan if it bit her!

And speaking of things that bite, Roman thought as the door behind him squealed from opening, here comes his next delivery!

"Took you animals long enough," Torchwick growled as he turned... then paused. Standing behind his latest Dust acquisitions wasn't the scrawny animal he was waiting for. No, this man was absolutely gigantic, with tattoos crawling across biceps that could pin an Ursa down with ease. His entire face was covered by an intricate mask bordering on being a helmet.

"... Who are you?"

"Edward Almond." His voice rumbled through the warehouse like rolling boulders. "Former White Fang Lieutenant." The moonlight glinted off of a massive chainsaw tied to his back.

"There's been a change of management."


	4. 0-0

**0-0**

* * *

Someone was sneaking around. Adam's eyes snapped open. He rose, already flinging the covers off of himself, ready to strike down whatever was coming for them before his mind could even catch up. He prepared to snarl out either a curse of these humans or a demand for assistance when a hand slapped itself over his mouth.

"Shh!" Spotting Yang's golden mane and spotting no gauntlet on the hand covering his mouth was what saved her arm. Adam slapped her hand away from him with Wilt, earning a concerned, faintly amused look from the girl. Before he could question her look or complain about her actions however, Yang jabbed a thumb behind her towards Ruby.

... Who was sneaking up on the slumbering Schnee, a whistle in her hand and a devious gleam in her eye. He kept his glare on Yang. By all means, he could've stopped the girl from scaring the Schnee. He probably could've even saved himself the headache such a sharp noise would undoubtedly cause, too. But he didn't. As the heiress managed to scream, throw herself off the bed and land flat on her back in an instant, Adam confirmed that the whistle-induced headache was absolutely worth it.

"Gooood morning, Team RWAY!" Ruby's voice added to the Schnee's annoyance and Adam's headache.

Still worth it.

* * *

The decision to 'decorate' the room while the sun was barely above the horizon was one mostly made by Ruby and Yang. However, even the Schnee had gotten into changing the room to her desires. Adam's decorations were different. It'd taken a half-hour of shuffling and minute movements, but he'd finally gotten one of the desks just how he had it in the White Fang. Were his mask not in the bottom of his bag, he would have known the place it would have sat down to the inch.

When he'd finally turned around and acknowledged the rest of his team's existence, he'd wished he hadn't.

A line had been drawn across the room: on one side of it, there was his bed and his desk, clean and in a corner. And on the other side... the rest of the room. Gaudy paintings and crooked posters now adorned the walls, a curtain was thrown up and accidentally cut in half by Ruby, and at some point the girls had managed to pile their beds on top of one another to try and paradoxically clear space.

"This isn't going to work," Adam and Weiss both stated. He grimaced at sharing the same thought process as a Schnee and the glare she shot him didn't help his agitation.

"Maybe we could ditch some of our stuff?" Yang suggested.

"I'm sure Schnee has brought enough to fill a room of her own," Adam added.

The Schnee crinkled her nose in disdain. "Any ideas that _don't_ involve throwing away my things?"

Ruby perked up, seemingly just ignoring the heiress' words entirely to throw out her suggestion of, "Bunk beds!"

Wow. Adam was faintly surprised he didn't think of that himself, considering his military background. Wait, no, he wasn't, because, "Where, exactly, are we going to get the materials for that right before class?"

Ruby just looked at Adam like he was asking what two plus two was. "We've got everything right here, duh!" She waved her arms excitedly. "Come on, it'll be easy!"

"Obviously," the Schnee interrupted before he could refuse, "he sees how silly and dangerous this would be. You agree with me, right, Adam?"

Agreeing with a Schnee.

Really, she brought this entirely on herself.

"This can theoretically be worked out," was Adam's non-agreement with either of them. Two yay, one nay, one abstain. Bunk beds it was, then.

The Schnee threw her hands up in exasperation and, instead of helping like in a good democracy, decided to storm off under the excuse of getting ready for school. Leaving her bed unprotected was a poor idea: Adam now had all the time in the world to cut off the tops and bottoms of her bedposts, leaving it laying flat on the ground, and using them to build up his own. Having been on the streets and in a terrorist cell built up good carpentry skills: he'd had his bed built in record time.

Just enough time, in fact, for him to also notice that the time for school—his mind still groaned at the thought—was rapidly approaching. As the three were piling out of the door, the Schnee had just arrived, staring past them and into the room with a look of horror. Her eyes traveled from the serviceable bunk bed on the right to Ruby's bunk bed on the left.

Well, he called it a bunk bed, but really it was more of a prototype execution device for the poor sap stuck on the shortened bed beneath it, hung up on rope duct taped and nailed to the ceiling without a single part of it or its supports touching the ground. A death trap, plain and simple.

"Oh, by the way, dibs on the other top bunk," Yang said as she passed by her.

"H-hey! Shouldn't we..." She racked her brain for an excuse. "Sleep on the same side as our partners..." The Schnee's voice slowly died out into a mumble: she couldn't even say that with a straight face.

"Probably, but I don't want to wake up with one of you strangling the other," Yang explained as Adam walked by, smirking and mocking her with his eyes alone. The heiress pouted in the doorway trying to come up with anything that'd let her get one of the better beds besides outright just stealing it at night, but to no avail.

"Don't worry, Weiss!" Ruby threw an arm around her shoulder. "My bed's one hundred percent super safe!" A piece of tape fell from the bed. It creaked ominously.

Weiss whimpered.

* * *

The Schnee had unfortunately regained her composure by the time they were walking down Beacon's wide pavilion. Fortunately, even as she tried to stomp away from her teammates, being shorter than Ruby without the help of her heels left her gait just a little too short to truly lose them. That probably explained her worsening mood, too. Wonderful, Adam thought!

"Soo," Yang stepped closer to him, a devious grin on her face, "you sleep cuddled up with your weapon at night too, huh?"

Adam turned a glare down at her and snorted, not even bothering to justify that with an answer.

"Ha, see! I told you it wasn't weird!" Ruby, however, appeared to take that as one, all but skipping beside her sister. "It's the mark of someone who actually cares about their weapon!"

"It's the mark of a weirdo."

"It's for _security,_ " Adam half-growled, hoping it would shut the two up.

"Oh, sort of like your hat, then?" Yang asked with a smirk. Adam couldn't hide his flinch; he'd been keeping his hat a lot closer than reasonable for a normal person. He hadn't been wearing it to sleep—that'd be ludicrous, even for him—but it laying on his head at least masked his horns. It still looked a bit weird, though. Adam didn't need another reminder of needing to hide his heritage, whether or not it was for their own sake.

"I don't need to explain myself to you." Snarling, Adam strode further forward, passing the Schnee.

As he stormed off, he could hear Yang's teasing voice. Yet, it wasn't aimed at him. "Uh-oh sis, looks like you sped out of the door so fast you forgot your cloak! I can barely even recognize you!"

"I didn't forget it, I just... don't need to stick out _that_ much. Remember: normal knees!" Their voices faded, shoved out of Adam's mind as he stormed towards the classes. Along his way, he caught the gaze of 'Headmaster' Ozpin and his assistant. Whereas Ozpin offered a soft smile and raise of his mug even in the face of his agitation, Goodwitch managed to eclipse even his own hidden fury with her glare. Adam scoffed and turned away. This was his headmaster. His assistant headmaster. Watching him and his gaggle of teenage girls on the way to class.

His mind already churned with ways to pay Blake back for this. There was nothing about this that was worth it.

* * *

As Adam watched the heiress to the SDC nearly get bulldozed by a weak Boarbatusk—one who was kept in captivity away from negativity, no less—he decided that this absolutely was worth it. It helped that he was in the class of the prestigious Professor Port: he had never met the man himself, but he had heard talk of his charity towards faunuskind in the aftermath of the Faunus War. Shame no one else seemed to respect such dramatic greatness. However, the extent of such kindness towards his kind was put into question by their work here: why would they work under the very institutions that help oppress the faunus?

His internal debate on the loyalty of these professors to the faunus continued even after class until it was interrupted by the increasingly familiar and increasingly annoying shrill whine of a certain Schnee nearby. Irritated that she was not the leader, it seemed she'd taken it upon herself to take it out on Ruby. In truth, he himself still did not have much trust in a fifteen year old still so innocent to lead them all.

He might've recalled the stresses of what little leadership he'd held near her age, but squabbling over what scraps of power they could hold over one another was a distinctly human matter.

"Frankly, I deserve better!" the Schnee's voice echoed as he turned to leave. "Ozpin made a mistake."

... But, he also didn't want to leave that Schnee with the last word. Such was the reason Adam told himself anyway, as he silently strode towards them. Unfortunately, by the time he'd reached Ruby, the Schnee was already walking away with her nose held high. He scowled.

"The only thing that girl deserves is a muzzle."

The girl practically leaped out of her skin and spun to face him, but tried to brush it off with a nervous laugh.

"U-uh-huh, yeah... real jerk..." Ruby forced a smile, though it quickly faded under Adam's judging gaze. She could barely bring her eyes up to his. She was fidgeting. Ringing her hands. Were her eyes watering? Heavens, it was worse than he thought. Adam ignored the needle trying to worm its way into his heart at seeing this... child brought so low already, opting instead for a deeper frown.

If it was any of his soldiers, he'd have given them a clap on the shoulder, a nod of understanding and an order to suck it up: they're better than that. But, this was different than facing down a soldier afraid to put on a mask. This wasn't the White Fang, Adam told himself. She wasn't training to be a killer, Adam told himself. Anything to ignore how he could recall amber eyes staring up at him in the same, lost way. Purpose without guidance.

The needle turned into a dagger and, unaware of the awkward, tense silence he'd left behind, Adam let out a great sigh at the same time Ruby did.

"Look, I-I know you don't like me, either, but—"

 _"Enough."_ It was just too much. Adam turned away. "A leader must be ready to defend their position if they want to keep it, no matter the cost. There's enough trouble with Schnee questioning your authority: don't add yourself to that list of opponents."

Ruby paused. "Are... _you_ on that list, too?"

"... That remains to be seen." Adam looked back towards her. He wished he hadn't. The resemblance was only stronger, now: that desire for warmth and acceptance, the fear of being seen as useless, all too similar to how Blake once was. The innocence Blake held, however, was lost because of him, Adam's conscience so frustratingly reminded him. Those damned instincts were once more starting to dig their way out of the hole he buried them in years ago. Adam wanted to leave it at that, but when faced with that instinct...

"It's only been one day." Ruby beamed. "Some immaturity aside," Ruby's smile faded, "you have been... adequate." And returned even brighter than before. Adam opened his mouth to speak again, but with a now giddy grin, Ruby leaped over to hug him. Adam cringed at the sudden close contact, eyes darting around for any form of escape from this situation.

"Aha! I knew you believed in me!"

His grimace threatened to turn into a scowl, but Adam was able to gather himself and wriggle away from her.

"Simply... keep this in mind: if you do not want to be questioned, give them nothing _to_ question." With that, Adam finally walked away. He had a distinct feeling that more times would come when he would need to tell himself that his help to Ruby was only to defeat the Schnee's want for power. Exactly how long he could fool himself, however, Adam did not know.

Out of sight and out of mind, Ozpin sipped at his mug with a content smile. He'd made many mistakes in his life. Team RWAY was not one of them.

Yet, lurking behind a corner and listening in on their conversation, Yang disagreed. It had only been a day, and she was getting sick and tired of her own teammates brushing off Ruby like that, even if Ruby herself didn't seem to notice. Something needed to be done about this, and not only did she know just who to start with, but exactly how to do it.

* * *

Watching Jaune fight was amazing in a way, Adam thought. Not because of any sort of skill on his part, oh no, in truth that made it plain sad at times, but just from... how much _punishment_ he could take.

The second week in this school had come by and, with it, a number of combat classes. Adam preferred to stay out of it: not only did he not feel like potentially outing himself as far more powerful than he had let on, but battles between the students seemed so droll. Lifeless. Perhaps it was the contained environment, the lack of change, or the campus being so afraid of a little bloodshed that they'd put rules in place to prevent combat after a student fell below fifteen percent of their effective aura, _twenty-five_ percent for some still too afraid.

It was coddling at best, and what was the result? Jaune, who just got slapped across the face with an explosive-laden mace for the seventh time. With a little more training, that boy could stand with his lieutenant as the most tenacious he'd ever seen. Unfortunately, as Jaune clumsily swung his blade with all his might without so much as budging his foe, it was clear he lacked any of his lieutenant's strength. Finally, Goodwitch just had to call it right there. He hadn't landed a scratch on his opponent, Cardin. Even so, the sheer amount of effort left him panting.

Note to self: if he ever really needed to get rid of some stress, challenge Jaune to a duel.

"Alright! We still have some time remaining, are there any volunteers for the next sparring match?" Goodwitch offered to the students.

Yang's hand shot up like a rocket.

With an amused quirk of her eyebrow, Goodwitch motioned to her. "You've volunteered to be in this ring each day in the past week. I appreciate your enthusiasm, Miss Xiao Long, but after this match, I think we will be letting other students try their hand." She waved her crop. "Any volunteers?"

Only a couple raised their hands. They'd seen just how terrifying Yang was in the ring. Yang, however, wasn't interested in them. Instead, her lavender eyes were aimed directly at Adam. Then, so was her hand.

"I want to take him on."

Goodwitch's amusement swiftly vanished. "I am afraid intra-team fights are not preferred." She took solace, at least, in Adam looking unfazed. "Even so, a challenge requires both sides to agree."

"I'll do it." Adam rose up, and Goodwitch's stern stare turned into a poisonous glare.

"Come on, Miss Goodwitch! Just one? It'll be like... finding out our weaknesses so we can patch 'em up, later!" Yang pressed what little advantage she had.

Goodwitch shifted her jaw. This wasn't good, she thought. Not in the least. She could keep preventing him from taking to the arena even now, but that would only raise questions. Worse, it might just push other students to challenge him... or for Xiao Long to do so outside of school. Heavens knew her parents' team did, and often. That left one choice.

"So be it." With a short sigh, she set up the battle in her Scroll. She would just have to keep a close eye on their aura levels, and a closer one on that... terrorist. Glynda had no lack of faith in her own abilities: she could afford herself a more lighthearted thought on exactly how she was going to tell Ozpin 'I told you so' when she halted the fight.

Soon, their aura levels were displayed above the arena for the audience to see, and both Adam and Yang marched off to prepare.

* * *

"So, tell me, Yang," Adam began as they walked towards what was all but a stage, "what suddenly possessed you do make a foolish decision like this?"

Yang snorted. "Because I'm getting tired of you acting like you're all 'too cool for school'. You're no different from Weiss," she continued even through the withering glare Adam shot at her. "You both think you're so above it all: teammates, friends, even just talking! Look at you, even in this class—you know, the _fun_ one—you're always staring at everyone like you're some kind of instructor, yourself!" The two split before Adam could respond.

He burned with fury at her having the nerve to compare him to that Schnee in any way, but he kept it hidden deep inside, just like the rest of the hate he still felt for these humans. As they settled and the lights began to dim, Yang made her mission clear to him:

"It's about time that someone teaches you a lesson!" She slammed her fists together, loading the first shells into her gauntlets. "And I'm gonna be glad to be the one that does it!" How typical of a human: her pride or her honor was hurt by him brushing them off, so she resorts to trying to beat him like a dog instead? Adam had no intentions of letting Yang get her way like this... but, he did not want to make his power apparent. No. That would raise questions.

He knew exactly what he was going to do.

"Begin!"

The battle began not with a storm of gunfire or clashing of blades, but stark silence. They merely watched one another for any sign of weakness in a quiet contest of wills. Yang, perhaps, believed that he would make the first move and hopefully leave himself open to counter. Smart. Not smart enough.

Adam raised his arm out to one side, Wilt's handle glinting dangerously.

Yang's stance shifted.

Adam dropped his sword.

The crowd began muttering, no doubt seeing exactly what that disrespect was meant to be. And if _they_ could...

Yang's eyes widened, lilac turning to magenta, before she blasted herself towards him as quick as a train with her fist cocked back likely carrying the force of whole yard's worth. Adam sidestepped the devastating strike, and the gold glow surrounding her hand did not escape his notice. She'd struck down more than one student in a single blow like that. Yang fired her gauntlets mid-flight, throwing her elbow up at his chin only for him to lean back out of the way. A golden glow surrounded her elbow, as well.

He had an idea. A strategy.

Yang landed and with yet another burst from Ember Celica, leaped into a flying knee. Golden glow. Adam twirled around this blow and threw his momentum into a roundhouse kick to the back of her head before she'd even landed. He had to give her credit: she recovered quick, rolling to her feet in a fluid motion and launching a barrage of shotgun blasts his way. Each was dodged with cold calculation, leaving him as only a black blur sliding between each burst.

Even so, all it took was being clipped once for him to stumble, forced to keep backpedaling. Even those pellets were filled to the brim with aura.

"Don't let him draw you in!" Ruby called from the audience, unseen but not unheard. "He's trying to make you waste your aura!"

Adam did not take his eyes off of Yang, but could catch her bar having slid from green to yellow already. She started to straighten her stance, listening, unlike the Schnee... right up until she spotted him hopping in place and throwing out taunting jabs in the air at her. Adam beckoned her forward, and the anger flooded into her eyes again.

All too easy, Adam thought, even as he narrowly avoided another shot with a tilt of his head. Yang was on him in an instant, forgoing pure power with speed and launching a lightning-fast series of jabs and crosses—well, fast for her, perhaps. Adam easily admitted to himself that each one of these swings would be devastating if she actually hit, but she was predictable and full of tells. She all but moved in slow motion to Adam, who swayed out of the way of or blocked every strike while only giving teasing little jabs at her chest and abdomen not meant to wound but infuriate.

Ah, of course only now, he would think of the perfect comeback to that condescending mission statement of hers. Adam hated when that happened.

He ducked under a gun-boosted roundhouse kick. Hopefully, he'd find a way to make that work.

The ground shook as Yang fired behind her in an attempt to shoulder-check Adam, but she stumbled: Adam was gone, as if he was never there. Yang twisted around to search for him.

Standing a few meters away, Adam teasingly bobbed his hands like a matador waving his cape.

... He was a bull faunus.

He was allowed to do that.

Ignoring the protests of her sister in the crowd, Yang took the bait, blasting forth and, rather than a simple shoulder check, throwing herself from side-to-side with careful shots until she got close enough for an uppercut. He vanished in a blur yet again. Yang spun in place, skidding across the arena floor. Her weight shifted dangerously. She glanced back; she'd almost fallen off the edge of the ring, altogether. Her eyes burned with heat and the roaring of the crowd was deafened by the blood rushing in her ears as she glared at Adam again. Rather, glared at his back, for he was strolling away towards his blade, like she wasn't even worth his time.

"Oh, you think you're real funny, don't you!" Yang screamed. That was it! Yang had flown clean off of just 'mad' and clean into 'absolutely livid'! The worst part was, by some fluke—or, she briefly feared, knowledge of her Semblance—Adam hadn't even given her more than a few love taps at a time! She was left to draw on her own aura for as much strength as she could muster, leaving weak flames flickering to life around her hair and fists. He was at three-quarters of his aura, and she had put so much into trying to lay him out in one blow that she'd brought herself all the way down to sixty percent.

She needed to end this.

Yang threw herself into the most powerful punch she could give without her Semblance, flames scorching the ground from fury and speed alike until she swung up into an uppercut that could floor a Beringel.

Adam grabbed her fist.

The explosion of force and fire cast the entire training room in orange hues, her aura was strained just from the backlash and the sheer force should've shattered Adam's arm for pulling a trick like that... but there he stood. His arm was clearly glowing red from the impact against his aura, but he remained standing: Adam had managed to channel enough aura into his hand quickly enough to negate enough of the impact.

The silence that resounded even outside the arena was broken only by the tinkling of crushed shotgun pellets hitting the ground.

"Teach me a lesson, Yang?" Adam pushed the mind-blanking pain in his arm back and forced his numbed hand to tightly grip Yang's own. That blow was barely meant to be lived through, let alone left standing through, and both of them knew that. It was a strike that would've not just knocked out any first year but likely hospitalized them. Adam was impressed with her ruthlessness. In the shocked silence of the aftermath, however, Adam found an opportunity he couldn't miss:

"How can you teach me when we aren't even _in the same class!"_ He suddenly yanked her forward and punctuated his shout by slamming his forehead into hers, sending Yang reeling back. She recovered quickly and reared her fist back for another swing, but it was too late: by the time Yang had even opened her eyes, he'd had leaped into the air, every inch of red on him from his eyes to his clothes shining a vivid red. Adam gathered all the energy he'd blocked from every punch he'd deflected and blocked, twisted his entire body, and swung his foot into the side of Yang's head.

The buzzer sounded.

"What?! She was just at half!" The Schnee called out in disbelief as Adam landed with darkening rose petals falling around his feet. The small audience let out cheers and cries of shock befitting a group far larger than they: one of the strongest first-years short of Pyrrha herself was left on the ground just trying and failing to get her feet back under her. Yang had been knocked silly by the blow.

Adam only snorted and began to walk away. Yang would make no such foolish mistake again, he thought just as his eye caught the final aura readings. Yang, of course, was at absolute zero.

He was at thirty percent. Fifteen percent away from having lost, just from that single punch. His right hand—the one he'd caught Yang with—instinctively tried to clench, but it was trembling and slow. Adam stopped. Even if he had been holding back, bringing him to that point was no small feat: were she not so cocky at first, he could've actually lost their duel by Beacon rules, even if in real life, he still would have had Yang dead to rights. Adam begrudgingly had to admit it: even if her goal was childish and insulting, Yang was a good opponent.

Honor wouldn't let him walk away from one so easily.

* * *

One second she was getting ready to throw a punch, the next, the world was hazy, wobbly and faintly rose-scented. Yang didn't even know what happened until she noticed that she could see the rest of the class outside the field: she'd lost. And then it all came back to her. With a groan, she tried to push herself back up to her feet, but her legs just weren't cooperating with her, anymore. It was like they were made of metal, now. Oh, she was going to kick Adam's ass when she could walk again!

The world started to come in focus just as she felt someone start helping her up. That scent of roses came back.

"Ugh... thanks, Rubes..." Yang mumbled.

"Not exactly." That voice was just a _little_ too deep to be her little sister's. She blinked the 'sleep' out of her eyes and glared up at the source: the one who knocked her senseless in the first place. Adam glared back down at her, agitation betrayed by the flickers of mirth in his eyes. Both recognized the other had many opportunities to make life just that little bit worse for them: she could shove him aside and retain her pride, he could let her drop and crush it further. She could spit blood in his eyes and claim a spiritual victory from the fickle crowd, he could make sure she wasn't leaving without help with another punch.

But, neither did so. Staring each other down, they found the faintest glimmer of understanding.

Yang snorted, spat on the ground and flashed him a bloody grin.

"Lucky shot!" She earned a rough bark of a laugh from the victor.

Maybe there was some hope for him, yet.

* * *

1-0


	5. 1-0

**1-0  
**

* * *

Well, Yang _thought_ that there was some hope for Adam. Instead, Ruby was wandering back to their table in the cafeteria to sulk after a swift and blunt rejection from that dumb hat-wearing schmuck. He'd been eating his meals either outside or at another table altogether and, after getting the big sister seal of 'yeah, he might be alright', Ruby had gone off to bring him to eat with the team. And what did she get for her troubles?

"Do not mistake my advice for camaraderie."

Yang crushed the apple she was eating, not caring about the juice scattering across the table, the protests of the student across from them or Weiss not-so-subtly scooting further away from her. _She_ had managed to come eat with the group just fine, and frankly she'd gotten the feeling that Weiss was more stuck-up than Adam was. The little heiress was putting up with Ruby and trying to be a good teammate, but 'putting up' was about as far as it went: she wasn't exactly trying to be friends with Rubes, and sure as hell wasn't trying to be friends with her.

But she was still _here!_

Yang swallowed down her anger and flicked her ruined apple so she could wave Ruby back down with a cheery smile. She couldn't let Ruby notice.

"No luck this time, huh?" she asked as Ruby plopped down in her seat and sighed.

"I thought you said that fight softened him up!" Ruby complained with slumped shoulders.

Yang let out an awkward laugh, forced down her anger just a little more and hoped Ruby didn't notice her grin was just hiding her gritted teeth. "Ha ha, yeah, me too... guess not..."

She'd learned from that last fight. Adam wasn't going to take her down a second time. Challenging him again was out of the question—even if Miss Goodwitch hadn't basically benched her for a week to let others fight without the fear of getting piledrived, she refused to let her have another go at Adam.

 _"I told you, Miss Xiao Long, these fights are not preferred,"_ she had said. _"An exception is an exception, not the rule. I'm afraid you will have to put your luck in the randomizer if you wish to challenge him in this class again."_

But that was fine. Yang wasn't a fool. She knew how to get what she wanted.

* * *

Forced to the ground, Adam rolled out of the way of a blast of Ember Celica's shotgun and forced himself to backpedal out of the way out of a hook halfway to his head by the time he'd stood up. That unstable step left him just open enough for her to fire her gauntlet, throw herself into a spin and send a kick right into his jaw.

This wasn't exactly how he had planned on spending his day at the gym. Drawing his ire and attention both with a sharp jab to his shoulder as she passed and a nod to one of the training rings, Yang had pushed him into a rematch. That wasn't exactly surprising.

He avoided a jab close enough for him to feel the metal of Ember Celica graze his aura. It was the first of many, swift and numerous, forcing him into close-quarters where only his vastly superior speed and experience let him survive.

What did surprise him was how her fighting style had done a complete one-eighty. Her blows lacked the golden glow that surrounded them before, eyes once burning crimson remaining a cold, focused purple. Every strike was calculated: blocking was not enough, for unless he deflected her strikes altogether it would still leave him open to gunfire. It was strange, to say the least: if anything, he had expected her to be even more wild.

She faked a cross and used it to snap up into a kick, but this time, he was ready: Adam snatched her leg, gathered his aura and palmed Yang's knee with all his might. The resulting howl and flash of yellow light was sharp enough to draw glances from fighters in their own rings. Though Yang was able to recover on shaky legs, Adam gave her no time to recover, no fair play, as he leaped up and threw a kick of his own that launched her into the hard light walls of the training ring.

Adam allowed himself a dark chuckle as Yang forced herself onto her feet. His blade laid on the floor beside one of the corner posts, forgotten once again. He didn't need it.

"What's wrong! You were so confident challenging me, before!" He held his arms out in a grand challenge. Yang's eyes slipped from lilac to magenta and, briefly, Adam thought the fight won, before she swallowed it down and beckoned _him_ forward, instead.

Adam snorted. A lot of pride on this human. A short dash forward and he was throwing a knee at Yang's head. She deflected it and threw him back with a burst of buckshot, then forced him back into trading blows. She left her side open. Adam swung low, only for Yang to rush ahead and catch his arm beneath her own. He was trapped.

The fiery, gold punch right after left him bouncing off of the arena's floor and rolling to the edge. His Scroll beeped at him: he and his opponent both were at fifty percent of their aura.

"Not looking so tough now, are you?" Another blast of buckshot kept him unsteady and against the wall. Yang cocked her fist back, ready to pepper him from afar with lead while he was still dazed. Adam caught a glint of black not too far away. Wilt.

He was not going to let that human get the last laugh. She'd forgotten that he was playing _nice._

He ducked low, rolling towards his weapon beneath a rain of buckshot that left the shield-like wall flashing. He heard shotguns roar, yet without the impact of shells. Yang was rushing him.

Adam smirked.

Yang didn't see his hand around Wilt or recognize Blush's gunshot until it was far too late.

She did, however, see the world turn red, and the silhouette of Wilt's hilt advancing right towards her eye. Then nothing at all.

... Yang hated being on the receiving end of a Semblance like hers. Especially when she hadn't even truly begun to use her own. She almost hated it as much as seeing the fuzzy, warping image of its smug user step over to her while she laid on the ground. He was saying something, but the combination of the pain in her head and the pain everywhere else in her body from having her aura shattered made it a little hard to focus on.

The many Adams reached down to help her up. Scowling, Yang blinked the daze out of her system and slapped his hand away. That was twice, now, he humiliated her, weapon or no weapon. She wasn't about to give him the satisfaction.

Especially when it wasn't just her honor he was walking all over.

* * *

2-0

"While you may all be very capable fighters, Team RWAY, you cannot always expect to simply be able to overpower your opponents. Keep that in mind for the future," Goodwitch admonished them. For once, Adam agreed.

Their first team battle was an absolute failure. The only reason they won was obvious: each and every one of them were prodigies of their own right. Yang wasn't far from being able to solo their opposing team, to say nothing of his own abilities even while holding back his speed. This did not, however, make the fight enjoyable nor pleasant to look at.

That blonde imbecile was too busy either trying to make her friendly fire at him look like an accident or trying to butt in on whoever he was facing. The Schnee barely listened to any order the moment they had gotten into the thick of combat and questioned just about every one she did hear at least once. And Ruby...

Any semblance of her former potential as a tactician practically evaporated the moment things went wrong. Mumbled orders. No reprimands. No control of the situation. Worse, the Schnee had tried to take over for orders when Ruby faltered. Yang hadn't been particularly pleased by her juvenile power grab.

Yang wasn't pleased by his attempts to call orders in order to save face for their team, either.

"What was that!" Weiss was ranting practically the moment they'd left class. "Victory or not, we looked like a bunch of amateurs out there. Ruby? Where was our leader? I could barely hear a single thing you said!" Adam forced back a frown at knowing the Schnee was able to pin down his own thoughts so well.

"You better back off, princess." Yang stormed forward before Ruby could even reply and loomed over the Schnee. Lilac eyes bored down into ice-blue.

She noticeably froze up before steeling her glare and clenching her fist. "Fine! How about _you_ , then, Yang? I don't think you put the least bit of thought in those shots, you buffoon! Did Adam knock a few brain cells loose in that fight of yours?"

Yang's eyes widened in offended rage. She cocked back her fist without thought. Shocked, the Schnee tried to step back and raise her rapier. Adam stared behind them at the young girl whose eyes darted between the two in increasing confusion and worry. They landed on him, but he did nothing. This was not just a human problem, but her problem as a leader.

"Stop!" In a rush of rose petals, Ruby slid between what little space was between the two girls, arms stretched out in front of the Schnee to protect her. "Both of you!"

Yang pulled up short, gaze dancing between Weiss and Ruby, mouth opening but with no words coming out. Finally, caught between shame and ever-growing anger, she spun on her heel and marched out.

"Whatever," she grunted on her way through the door, "I'll be in the gym."

Ruby looked back to speak to the Schnee, but she was already storming off in the other direction. That only left her and Adam in the awkward silence left behind. Seeing little reason for him to remain, Adam nodded to her—a small token of appreciation for actually stepping up—and turned to leave.

"You're going to need more confidence than that." He departed.

Weiss stopped sitting with them at the cafeteria.

* * *

Adam growled and snapped his Scroll shut beneath his desk. Nothing from Blake. It had been almost three weeks, now, and he had not heard a thing. Adam was no fool: even if Blake was taking something less conspicuous to get to Menagerie, like a boat, she would have been in range of the continent's limited CCT capabilities, by now. He rubbed his temples and returned his attention to the class at hand. The rapid speech of Doctor Oobleck all but went in one ear and out of the other—not like he had much use for human propaganda disguised as history—but, it didn't matter. Blake's silence unnerved him.

Just as much as Yang was beginning to. He looked past Ruby trying her hardest to look like she understood and Weiss frantically scratching down notes at the blonde following along, eyes intense yet focused on her work. It wasn't her anger or blatant attempts to catch him in the crossfire of her attacks.

It was everything else about her. Her hair. Her face. Her voice. Her aloofness. The way her eyes turned red when she grew angry only heightened that feeling that something wasn't right. So much about her was familiar: it reminded him of... his mentor. He doubted there was anything of worth in that thought, though: bar an idle complaint about her brother she refused to let him dig deeper into, his mentor had never made much mention of her personal life, let alone family or children.

Yet, long hair and red eyes should not have been enough to make that comparison in his head.

So, why?

Why did she remind him so much of Raven Branwen?

"... I'm not giving you my notes, if that's what you're about to ask," Yang half-joked, a wary but not malicious look in her eye.

Adam just rolled his eyes.

* * *

"The next match shall be..." Goodwitch sighed as the second randomized fighter slotted into place, even as the class murmured excitedly. "Adam Belladonna versus Yang Xiao Long."

At first, Adam hadn't even moved. He'd bested her twice, now: once with and once without his weapon. His dominance was secure. She would pass, he would agree, and that would be that. Then, he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. Bobbing, golden hair. Without even sparing him a glance, she'd started towards the arena as proud as could be.

It was mystifying.

Not mystifying enough to stop him from using his blade from the beginning of their bout, this time, but certainly enough to bother him throughout this clash. He could feel strength in her blows that only guidance and purpose both could give someone. Yang was fighting for something, but what? Surely even a human this arrogant would not bash her head against a wall so much in the faint hopes of humbling someone better.

In the end, the battle was far quicker than the last, much to the crowd's dismay. As Adam began sheathing his weapon, standing tall above the kneeling blonde, he finally figured it out.

Yang's eyes flicked off to the crowd. To Ruby. She slammed her fist into the ground and growled in frustration.

It was her. That was the key. It all made sense to him, now: this was a misguided attempt to 'protect' her sister. For once, Adam truly understood one of these humans. He'd done something all too similar for Blake many, many times before.

Even if he had not done so, Adam thought as he clicked his blade open on the way back to the changing room. _Chuugi_ , 'Loyalty', still stood out like the day it was engraved.

He could understand loyalty like that.

* * *

3-0

He didn't find it strange when the door to his locker room opened. Nor, as he buttoned up the thin undershirt of his uniform, did he find it strange that there were footsteps headed right towards him.

Nor when he turned just in time for Yang's fist to meet his jaw. Adam hopped back a step, but there was no follow-up to her strike. Yang stood across from him, still panting. Whereas he was at least partially changed into Beacon's uniform, Yang's blouse was messily buttoned, her black shorts and leather skirt visible beneath, like she'd started to change from her combat attire before just storming over. The room was warm, yet her breath still came out as steam. Her eyes, one already growing darker, were glowing with the color of blood.

Adam touched his jaw and straightened himself. Yang's aura crackled and warped as it tried to valiantly bring itself together, one more time. His aura, on the other hand, was still strong enough to rush across him in a smooth, red wave. She had rushed in without her gauntlets. His sword was within arm's reach. She was still recovering from losing her aura the first time. He'd only been brought down to seventy percent. By all means, this was just a very complicated way of committing suicide.

He let his aura drop. Yang's eyes widened ever so slightly, and the fires of her rage threatened to boil over at the disrespect, but she paused. Perhaps she saw that there was not even a ghost of a smile on his face. He was angry—no, _livid_ that this brat had the nerve to try to ambush him here... but he knew what this was. Adam knew Yang wasn't going to quit because the chips were down. It was a matter of honor, after all. Of _loyalty._

Yang looked him over, then, her eyes losing their glow, settled into a fighting stance. Adam did the same. Her aura lowered as they inched closer, step by step. Another minor understanding reached, the two nodded, tapped fists, and proceeded to reach an even greater understanding in the language they both knew best: fighting.

* * *

"Just what are you two doing!" Adam, running forward to catch Yang with a shoulder check and Yang, arm pulled back for a final punch, found themselves motionless. Fields of violet coated their bodies like the auras they'd forgone, holding them in place. Neither could see Goodwitch, their eyes stuck locked on one another, but they could hear her approaching.

The locker room was nothing short of destroyed. Lockers bent. A bench snapped in half. Droplets of red scattered across floor, wall and ceiling alike. A locker launched. That last one probably was what gave them away, Adam thought to himself.

"You must have lost your minds, fighting in here," Goodwitch said through gritted teeth. She lessened her grip just enough for them to move their eyes and, more importantly, take breaths that came to them in great gasps. They were no better than the room: bruises forming, sleeves torn, busted lips. Yang was undoubtedly going to have a black eye, now. Adam was sure he nearly broke the tip of his horn, and a cut above his brow forced an eye shut. An eye twitching, her jaw set and her grip tight enough on her riding crop to nearly snap it, Goodwitch was very clearly trying to hold back a torrent of fury.

"Well?" Her glare zeroed in on Adam and, despite himself, he glanced away. Only Raven could've managed a glare with even a fraction of that anger.

Both said nothing.

"Fine, then." Goodwitch straightened herself and regained her composure. "Come with me." A flick of her crop and the two were dropped to the ground. They laid there for a moment, trying to catch their breath. A moment too long, however, for they were yanked up by a purple glow that locked their wrists together. Both stumbled, but were too proud to let themselves be dragged out, no matter how hard every step came to them.

They passed the curious eyes of the other students without a glance in their direction, including that of Weiss and Ruby, waved along to follow by Goodwitch. They did not argue.

As they finally reached an empty hall, Yang spat blood to the ground. "So..."

Adam glanced over to her. Goodwitch did not look back, but did raise her crop in warning as she walked.

"Was it good for you, too?"

Adam tried to ignore that. 'Tried' being the keyword, for as Ruby and Weiss groaned behind them, he and Yang couldn't stifle their snickering. Both wound up regretting it as the telekinetic hold on their wrists painfully tightened.

* * *

The ticking of clocks and gears in Ozpin's office was almost deafening in the dead silence shared between Team RWAY, Ozpin and Goodwitch. Ozpin leaned against steepled hands and looked over each of them. Glynda did not need to explain much: two of the people sitting in front of him looking like they'd decided to fight Beowolves without a lick of protection explained enough.

Ruby squirmed in her seat beneath the stares of her superiors like she was ready to bolt at any given moment. Weiss held herself high and a not-so-imperceptible distance away from the other three, but could not hide the occasional twitch or glance around. Yang and Adam, though they were rather clearly in the wrong, were more aloof. Yang refused to look at them for more than a couple seconds, whereas Adam was the opposite, staring Ozpin down as if he were the one in charge.

He supposed he'd let them soak in the awkwardness enough.

"You know, this is not the first time I have heard of your team having severe issues," Ozpin began. "Arguments in initiation, spending most of your time apart, shouting matches in the hallway, and now, this: two students who should be protecting one another instead having an auraless, dangerous brawl in the middle of our locker rooms." He kept his voice even, but stern. Just enough to needle them. "It goes without saying that this cannot continue, if you wish to remain at Beacon. All of you."

Even Yang straightened her jaw. Weiss, however, waved her hand off at the three she tried to stay away from. "This has been _those_ two bickering and fighting, not me! How can I be blamed for that?"

Ozpin's eyebrow quirked up, and he could practically feel her blood chill. "Is that so? Might I remind you that the shouting match was between you and your leader."

She took a sharp breath. Ah, so she didn't think he knew about that? "I... I have been doing my part to repair the damaged relations my outburst may have caused. They, however, have not done a thing!"

"You may have become a better teammate, but not a better _partner._ " Weiss swelled, undoubtedly about to shout something, only to realize where she was and shrink down. She settled for a stern gaze.

"Just as you, Miss Rose," Ruby squeaked under Ozpin's gaze, "have much to learn on being a leader outside of combat. The team is your responsibility, as well: both in good, and in bad."

Yang and Adam glanced between each other. The former rolled her shoulders and sat up to speak, not letting Ozpin have a go at her sister lying down. Even Glynda stepped forward from her place at Ozpin's side, expecting his 'eccentricities' to let them go without a condemnation.

Ozpin cut them off before they began. "And do not believe I have forgotten about you two. I have been keeping a close eye on you both ever since your entry, but let me be clear in saying that while I have been willing to disregard your illicit activities up until now, if your actions continue to leave it clear that it was the trend and not the exception, your stay at Beacon will be a short one."

He took the two going stiff as boards and paler than ice as a sign of a job well done. "You may leave. But, this is not a warning. I will be considering your punishment."

Ozpin watched the four leave in the same silence they entered, then finally allowed himself to sigh. This body of his didn't have too many years left, and RWAY was frankly set to take what few he had left off his lifespan.

"And what will that punishment be?" Glynda asked, glad that he was willing to put his foot down. "I think two weeks of detention should have at least the three girls back in line."

Ozpin smiled. "I have my own ideas."

* * *

Ruby wasn't shocked when Weiss remained away from them during dinner: she refused to speak with any of them ever since the elevator doors to Ozpin's office closed. What did shock her was seeing Adam walking straight towards them with his tray. Fearing another conflict, she gulped and prepared for the worst.

Yang, seeing her panic, turned around. She and Adam stared one another down. Aura had mostly patched them up, but purplish-red still lingered under one of Yang's eyes, and there was still a nasty bruise on Adam's cheek. They nodded, and Adam sat down beside Ruby, leaving her baffled. Was this it? Were they all finally getting along? Was she not going to wind up in trouble again? Her eyes gleamed and she smiled, turning to pull Adam into the conversation she and Yang were already having.

"We can't let that end with a draw," Adam said right over her head to Yang.

"Oh, good, I thought you were going to chicken out."

Ruby deflated. "Guuuys, we just got out of Ozpin's office! Can we maybe take a day or two off from the fighting? Please?"

Yang tussled Ruby's hair and ignored her pouting. "It's fiiine! It's a friendly match this time, right?"

"We'll see if it's still friendly after you lose," Adam said with a slim smirk.

Well... it was at least a step in the right direction?

* * *

Adam distinctly remembered the first and only time he had ever defeated Raven in combat. It had taken months before she even responded to his request to prove himself in combat against her, and months longer before she would accept. In truth, he was a late bloomer compared to most Huntsmen-in-training: Raven had not unlocked his aura until he was thirteen, long after most would have been awakened. Combined with her stringent belief in mastering the basics completely, and he had not so much as scratched upon what his Semblance could be.

It had all changed, that night, just when he had turned sixteen: she had personally led him to one of the many human villages surrounding Mistral and showed him just what the faunus had to endure, even under the supposed peace and equality the White Fang brought. His mentor showed him the brutality and horrors inflicted by humans upon the faunus when they so much as believed the authorities had blinked, let alone turned a blind eye, and how not a soul would stop them. Raven had shown him, that day, what a mistake he had made in believing peace to save the weak was. She'd originally desired to have her tribe raid this village, but instead used it as another lesson: fighting when dreadfully outnumbered.

Adam was glad to eradicate that wretched hive for her. That night, he learned to smother his conscience.

That night, he cast away his old self and his old name, taking up the last name Raven bestowed him with.

That night, Adam Taurus set on becoming the monster Blake knew him as.

However, it came at a price: he left the village with almost no strength and aura alike. It was then that Raven challenged him for the first time, in the burning wreckage of a town whose smoke obscured the moon and stars alike. He was in no condition to fight, nor was he in any condition to refuse, and that frustrated him to no end. He knew that he was powerless.

The battle was short and brutal: Raven toyed with him and chipped him down ever lower to the ends of his aura without a word until all he could do was block and parry to the best of his strength. It was no doubt just her way of trying to force out his Semblance or, if he was too weak, getting rid of him before he became an embarrassment to himself and her alike.

It had worked. All of his frustration at being powerless, all of his rage at seeing how mistreated the faunus were, even the petulant anger at being challenged before he was even ready came flooding out in a single strike. Raven looked on in shock, and was overcome by the strength of his newfound Semblance.

At least, that's what he had thought.

Never again would he be able to bring her low, even with his mastery of aura and Semblance alike. It had never made sense to Adam: was a Semblance more powerful the first time it was unleashed? Had she simply not expected his Semblance to show in such a manner, or at that time? Questions hounded him throughout his years and his training both, up until he left for Vale and lost contact with Raven entirely. No matter what strategy he worked his Semblance into, no matter how strong he had gotten or fast he could strike, that would remain the one and only time he'd beaten her. If anything, it was the only time he'd even challenged Raven.

But now? Now, as he watched Yang force herself up to her feet, flames raging around her like the corporeal form of her frustration and rage, Adam knew. As Yang shot forward as a flaming meteorite, gathering up all of that emotion to fuel the Semblance he'd seen for the first time in their fights, everything came together: the red eyes, the hair, her nature, everything.

Adam realized, to his dismay, that his victory against Raven was of no act of his own. No, it was because she was genuinely caught off-guard. After all, she must've observed a Semblance all too similar to his once before: that of her daughter, Yang Xiao Long.

Adam also realized, to his dismay, that in the time he'd been absorbed in his thoughts, Yang's fist had gotten approximately one quarter of an inch away from his face.

* * *

So, this was what it felt like to be like on the other side.

Through sheer willpower, Adam forced his legs under him, but with the world so hazy and shaky around him, taking even a single step turned out to be a challenge. Trying to do so in the crater he came back to reality in, however, turned out to be nigh-on impossible. He was even thankful for a moment when a blur of gold started helping him off the arena, right up until his pride kicked in and informed him he really needed to be helped off-stage by a human.

His emerald eyes refocused just as they caught onto Yang's lilac ones filled with giddy glee. That stupid grin of hers, try as he might to ignore it, was infectious. Adam forced it down to a smirk.

"Lucky shot."

His pride could wait.

* * *

3-1


	6. Coffee Break

**Coffee Break**

* * *

The second time Team RWAY stood in Ozpin's office was decidedly less awkward. That wasn't to say it wasn't at all: Weiss once more stood a slight, but clear distance away from the four, having refused to say much more than a single syllable to them for the past day. Ruby fidgeted in place, looking from the headmaster who sat alone at his desk to her teammate. She hadn't been faring too well with the cold shoulder Weiss was giving them all. She thought things were getting better!

Ozpin took a long sip from his mug. "I've decided upon a suitable punishment." It was stating the obvious: it wasn't as if they would've been brought up for any other reason. "It is readily apparent that what the four of you lack are visions of the future. Example students, if you would."

Ruby crossed her arms. "Uh, my Uncle Qrow? Mom?"

"Our dad?" Yang added with a little disgruntlement.

Ozpin smiled knowingly. "If you knew how many times your parents' team found themselves here, I don't think you would agree."

Both opened their mouths to protest... but a little more thought on Qrow and Taiyang had them rethink that.

"Still, there is a reason why I randomize the placement of my students, even knowing that it can result in a team that has more than a few kinks to work out. It is because Huntresses and Huntsmen both must be capable of working with one another, no matter their faults. After all, to work alone is common, yes, but working with other Hunters, military personnel, even the very people you stand to protect is not uncommon. As such, would you not agree it is best to work out those kinks now rather than having a _police officer_ _without his aura_ be the one who mistakenly shuns a sibling and, to use more modern parlance, 'gets jumped' for it?"

Ruby raised her hand.

"Rhetorical question."

Ruby lowered her hand.

"... But, that being said, most students at least have the foundation of teamwork set in place by their combat schools. Combat schools only one of you has even attended to completion. In fact, I get the distinct feeling that all of you have a rather strong tendency to work alone." Adam kept his smugness to himself on being rather certain that he did not. "Or at least, certainly not with equals." Ozpin's eyes focusing on him at that left said smugness in Adam replaced with unease.

"It's a rather unique situation. As such, it requires a unique punishment." He tapped his desk, bringing up a hologram of a tiara. "Glynda, bring them in."

Now, all of them were fidgeting, albeit for different reasons. Thoughts ran wild on exactly what kind of punishment even required more than one person to execute, let alone one that would be considered unique.

Then, the elevator doors opened.

Adam's eyes widened. "You!"

* * *

It wasn't long after he had made the choice to abandon the White Fang for Blake. In what would wind up the final time he'd see her for some time, Blake had oh-so-casually dropped the fact that he should likely mask his horns. Not for his sake, of course. For their sake: heavens knew all it would take is one jab for him to wind up in prison and someone else to wind up six feet under. At the time, so desperate to keep Blake with him, he had agreed.

By the time he'd even reached the store, the weight of the stupidity of the situation was starting to weigh on him. Anger at how much he'd thrown away, yet how many challenges remained in his way, was bubbling to the forefront of his mind at all times.

And so he made his way down the shelves of hats, barely noticing how quickly the shop cleared out as he stalked through it like a predator searching for its prey. His eyes suddenly caught on a black hat that quickly gained his fancy. With a hum of interest, he picked it up. Soft, indented crown, thin rim... Adam quite liked the trilby.

"Nnnno. Try again." Which was why he was particularly agitated when a dainty, gloved hand snatched it just out of his own. Adam whirled around to face the person who would dare disrespect him in such a manner, teeth bared and anger practically corporeal around him.

"Is _that_ how you thank the person who just saved your life? Rude." The girl was unfazed: some tall human who almost met him at eye level, and one who must have frequented this shop a lot considering her cocoa-and-black designer clothes with a militaristic bent to them. Combined with her beret, designer and the aviator sunglasses she was staring impassively at him over, if she weren't so agitating, Adam might have considered her stylish.

But she was, so she wasn't.

* * *

"Oh. It's you." The same woman stood before him now, three others at her sides, and Glynda behind her.

"You know _Coco Adel?_ " Ruby asked, eyes practically sparkling.

Adam snorted. "We've met. Once. Not a charming first impression."

"Actually, I saved his life," Coco countered.

"An _Adel_ saves your life and you act in such a boorish manner?" Weiss scoffed at Adam's rudeness, leaving him both increasingly confused and agitated at the circumstances.

"You never exactly told me _how_ you did so," Adam half-growled at Coco.

Coco peered over her glasses as if Adam were daft. "By saving you from being the laughingstock of Vale, of course." She smirked upon seeing the homburg hat Adam wore. "I see you took my advice, though."

"You took my other choice."

"Oh, did I? Man, I am just too good to people..."

Ozpin cleared his throat, bringing all eyes back on him. "To return to the point, students, I'm sure you are all well aware of who Team CFVY is."

"Not particularly," Adam replied.

"Uh, have you been living under a rock, or something?" Yang asked. "They were pretty big news in the last Vytal Tournament."

"I was raised outside of the kingdoms." Considering the fact that the only thing he'd considered the Vytal Tournament to be before coming here was a target, Adam decided it was best to... fib on that one.

Ruby and Weiss all but whirled on him, and Adam realized with growing dismay he was likely about to be on the receiving end of not one but two, as Yang would call them, 'geekouts'.

To his surprise, however, Ozpin actually held a hand up to stop them.

"Team CFVY here are quite the local celebrities, you see, but I will leave the introductions to them." Ozpin sipped from his mug. "They will also be your example students. Think of them as... chaperones, like the Huntsman or Huntress you will take your first mission with. Guidance counselors. Your new 'older siblings', even."

Every sentence left all but Ruby's expressions growing more and more downtrodden. Even Adam was left rubbing his temples. He expected some level of humiliation just from being in this school in the first place, but to this extent? He was certain he would have the definition of 'demeaning' engraved onto his aura. Or his grave.

"Starting today, you will be assigned to them for a minimum of one hour at the end of each of your school days. They will be charged with getting the four of you in shape to be a true team. As such, to better harness your potential, they also have the ability to punish you with my position." The girls went pale. Adam's eye twitched. "And, if they deem you truly unfit at the end of your punishment period, the ability to decide whether or not it is wise to keep you in Beacon."

Adam was rather sure he spotted the exact moment the girls' souls threatened to escape from their bodies. Beyond the utter humiliation, at least, Adam did not find that as terrible. At worst, it would be awkward explaining it to Blake... were she to ever answer her Scroll, that is. That did not make this any less _infuriating._

"Well, with that said," Ozpin continued as if three of the four members of RWAY weren't still reeling, "I believe your first session should be starting just about now." He smiled as Glynda had to all but shepherd the four into the elevators, three barely recognizing their surroundings, the last stewing in enough anger to barely catch that they were being dismissed at all. Team CFVY stepped into the second, not even fazed by their new charges' emotions.

Ozpin once more found himself sighing as the doors closed. It was a risky move: were they to fail, he would lose so much, not to mention having Qrow and Taiyang setting off to give him an early grave. Still, he believed in them. They had potential. This entire _experiment_ to convert Her own tools had potential.

All they had to do was try not to kill one another again. Simple, right?

Right?

* * *

"Alright, maggots!" Scowling, Coco marched between both teams as they stood in the courtyard just outside Ozpin's tower. "You heard the headmaster: we're here to whip you four into shape! Headmaster Ozpin may have been so kind as to tell you my name but not who I am! I am Coco Adel, heiress to the Adel fashion family and, if you so happen to live in a cave, first freshman second-place winner of the Vytal Tournament in twenty-five years! Unfortunately for you piles of garbage, this is not the Vytal Tournament and silver doesn't mean shit!"

Her ranting was doing a good job on the three girls, leaving them rigid and at attention, still reeling from the bombs Ozpin had dropped on them... even if Yang's red eyes showed her disdain for this. Adam, frankly, was wondering if it was too late to escape and pass off his disappearance to the White Fang as an injury. Besides, the fact that the only other faunus, a brown-haired rabbit girl who couldn't keep her eyes on them for more than a second or two was rather clearly trying to stifle laughter didn't bode well.

"When I am done with you, you will be the best damn Huntress team in Beacon other than us or you could kiss that future goodbye! I have your lives as Huntresses in my hands, ladies, and it would be best for you to remember that! Am I understood!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Ruby and Weiss shouted, the former snapping a salute. Yang had substantially more trouble humiliating herself like that.

"Fully," Adam growled. Just let the human have their fun, strike them when they least expect it. He'd dealt with people like this enough times to know what to do.

Coco halted in front of Yang and Adam. A twist of her heel had her glaring over her glasses at them both. "I don't believe I heard you!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Yang did a surprisingly good job of shouting through gritted teeth.

Coco stepped so that only Adam was in her sight. Her eyes bored into his. "Well?!" she barked.

Adam shifted his jaw, and his plan flew out of the window. "I answered. Or are you shouting because your hearing is shoddy?" Adam said with a faint sneer. Ruby and Yang snickered.

"Oooh, we've got a smart-ass! All of you but the princess, twenty push-ups, now!" Ruby squeaked and was on the floor in an instant. Yang shifted her jaw and reluctantly followed.

Adam didn't move. "Excuse you?"

"I guess either it's your ears or your head that's screwed up, because Ozpin made it very clear that we can punish you, so get down on the ground, punk!"

The rabbit girl behind them finally broke into giggles as one of CFVY—a Vacuan, scarred man with simple clothing, fiery-red hair and damaged, empty eyes—laid a hand on Coco's shoulder. "I... don't think he meant we could punish them like that," he said.

Adam and Coco glared daggers at one another, air practically combusting between them before Coco... laughed. Like a storm dissipating with only a breeze, the aura of threat and power vanished in an instant. She waved the man off and cocked her hips to one side.

"You're no fun, Fox. Alright, alright, get up, you're fine!" Coco stepped back with her team, a warm smile replacing the vicious scowl she had before.

"Wait, wait, wait, was all that just a joke?" Yang asked as she got up. Coco's grin answered that question for her. Grinning back, she held her fist out.

Coco fist-bumped her. "Alright, but really, don't get too comfy. Here's how this is gonna work: we don't actually have anything planned. We... well, let's just say we got in a situation like yours once, and instead of giving us a punishment then, he waited two years to call it in. We found out yesterday. He does that. You're lucky. So, we're going to just split this up, one-on-one, and try to figure out what's going on. Sound good? And don't worry, we won't be speaking a word to anyone outside our own team of... 'guidance counselors'."

"S-so, uh..." Ruby cleared her throat.

Coco raised an eyebrow and rolled her hand. "Come on, spit it out."

"Do I go with you? Leader and leader?" She couldn't hide how hopeful she was about it.

"Nope!" Coco jabbed her thumb towards Weiss. "She is."

Ruby looked like a kicked puppy. Weiss' jaw dropped.

"You're with Fox."

"Aw..." Ruby managed to look even more heartbroken.

"... Thank you for the vote of confidence," Fox said with a cocked eyebrow. Ruby's mouth opened and closed like a fish before she jumped forward, words flying faster than frankly any of them could understand in a desperate attempt to save face.

"Blondie, you're with Yatsuhashi." She waved back to the absolutely massive man who towered over even Adam. By almost a foot. He bared a frightful resemblance to his lieutenant, Adam thought, especially in terms of height. Were it not for his size, though, he'd have been completely unassuming: simple tunic, earthen colors of clothing, only a bronze shoulder pad for armor. Stoic. Practically Yang's opposite. Much like how this serious-looking 'Fox' was Ruby's opposite, and their boisterous, annoying, grating leader was... actually relatively fitting for Weiss, but, still.

None of that mattered, though, because—

"By process of elimination, you, Mr. Doom N' Gloom, are with Velvet."

He had a fellow faunus. Thank God. He needed a reprieve from this madness. Adam even managed a smile and nod when Velvet waved to him. He'd take what he could get.

"And _don't get any ideas._ " Aaand his smile was gone. Adam rolled his eyes.

"Alright, everyone, I'll see you in... I don't know, an hour or something. Weiss, with me! Might as well multitask and get some shopping in while we're out." Coco turned and strode off deeper into Beacon, Weiss barely even sparing them all a glance before following behind like a puppy.

"W-well, uh... see you guys later, I guess?" Ruby said to the rest before glancing over her shoulder and noticing that Fox was already wandering off. "Hey, wait for me!" She darted off in a rush of flower petals.

Yang looked Yatsuhashi over. "... Wanna head to the gym?"

"Agreeable."

And then there were only two.

Velvet wasn't entirely fond of that: she'd been given a brief rundown on why they were here in the first place, and rumors of the tall and brooding man practically radiating a distinct mix of anger and disdain even in the halls were not flattering. Rumors of being a criminal, dark pasts, murders, who knows what.

Adam glanced over to her, and to her surprise, there was... none of that. Sure, he didn't look _happy,_ but it was like walking outside expecting a thunderstorm and just getting a drizzle.

He actually smiled. "If I'm going to torment you with the tales of insanity from my team, we should consider somewhere more peaceful." Adam started walking off. "Come, I heard there were gardens near the Forever Fall."

Stunned and confused, Velvet took a second before following behind.

* * *

"So, what's the problem?" Coco picked a dress from a rack, glancing at Weiss from a mirror ahead. She couldn't help but notice how Weiss relaxed when she was away from her own team. Shoulders not as rigid. A bounce in her step. That was already worrying.

Weiss rolled her eyes as she looked over a beret. The shop was empty besides them and a starstruck attendant unlikely to speak a word. It was one of the Adels' own shops, after all. They could speak freely. "I believe I would have far better luck explaining what _isn't_ a problem with those ruffians than what is not."

"Well, give it a try, anyway. This hour isn't about to spend itself, you know. Here," Weiss turned as Coco handed her a set of clothes. "try this one."

"If you insist, thank you..." She smiled slightly to her and with a thankful nod, took them into a changing room. Coco marked that down in her mind. She was happier, but still pretty restrained. Interesting. "It's insanity in there like you would never believe! Our leader is a child who either doesn't take something seriously or can't reign in the troublemakers of our team, her sister just enables her time and time again, and..." From the changing room, Weiss growled. "Adam is his own list of problems."

She all but flung open the door. "I might be biting my tongue around them to be a good partner, but whatever Ozpin saw to make her leader over me, I _certainly_ haven't seen any of it, myself." Dressed in a flowing, white evening gown that faded to a translucent, icy-blue at its ends, an aspect shared by her bolero jacket, Weiss looked more like a princess than a Huntress.

"But at least she could make it somewhere in this world, unlike the two barbarians who got me in this situation to begin with. How they even got into Beacon astounds me."

Coco shrugged. "Ozpin moves in mysterious ways." She wiggled her fingers for dramatic effect. Weiss stifled something between a scoff and a giggle. "That being said, I trust our headmaster. He's wiser than I thought he was when I started... mostly because he doesn't judge books on their cover. There's more to anyone than what meets the eye. By the way, no." She handed another outfit off to Weiss. "Try this one."

Having actually taken a bit of a liking to it, Weiss blinked in surprise, but nodded and stepped back inside.

"Let's get in deep, then. What's with Ruby?"

* * *

"I can't control anything!" Ruby not so much plopped down but melted onto the bench Fox was sitting on. Secluded, open and staring out upon the Emerald Forest used for initiation, Fox personally came here quite often to think. Hopefully, it was what Ruby needed, too.

"I mean, the headmaster put me as the leader of a team with my big sister, some guy four years older than me and... _Weiss!_ The only reason they even have to listen to me is that Ozpin said I'm the big leader, and I don't think anyone's gonna buy that for too long." She sighed. "All it even takes is for them to just... go off on their own, and what can I even say to stop them? Why bother if they're just gonna do it anyway?"

She flopped onto the ground. "If I can't even stop them from beating each other up, how am I supposed to lead a team in a fight?" Ruby whimpered.

Fox waited to see if Ruby was going to keep going. Nothing. He cleared his throat. "Maybe... focus a little less on leading?"

Ruby looked up, silver eyes sparkling. "Does Ozpin accept resignations?"

"Not exactly. You should remember that you aren't alone. You just have to... work _with_ your team as leader. After all, your sibling seemed rather happy to help keep control in her own special... dangerous way."

"Are you sure she didn't just want to punch Adam in the face?"

* * *

Lying down on a different kind of bench, Yang groaned as Yatsuhashi placed another set of weights on her bar. "Are we really going here? He was an ass, I hit him, we made up, we're cool now, alright?" She shifted in place and grabbed the barbell.

Yatsuhashi crossed his arms and stepped away, refusing to spot. "Just rudeness, then?" Even without emotion, his tone did not exactly leave him sounding trusting of Yang's opinion.

She scoffed and started lifting, anyway. She had aura, she didn't care. After a few repetitions, though, Yatsuhashi's constant, stern stare got the best of her. Resisting the urge to just chuck the bar in annoyance, she racked it and sat up.

"Look, she's my little sister! She's fifteen, what do you want me to do, just let everyone pick on her?"

"Would you have attacked freshmen two years younger than you if she had come to Beacon at the normal time?"

Yang scowled. "She'd be older, then! She could..." She sighed. "She could handle herself, by then."

"She can handle herself now."

"Yeah, no."

Yatsuhashi raised an eyebrow. "Ozpin believes so."

"Well, then Ozpin's a—" Yatsuhashi raised the other eyebrow. "... Guy who doesn't know Rubes like I do."

"Which is why I believe you know she can make it as leader. She just needs help."

Yang glanced away, knowing full well that if Yatsuhashi looked into her eyes, he'd see just how quickly he'd won that argument. "Well, fine, whatever, but even if Ruby's handled, that won't make the other two any easier. Weiss is a bona fide ice queen, and even if Adam isn't as rough around the edges, he's still a—"

* * *

"Shortsighted, arrogant, brooding, careless, know-it-all brute so focused on looking 'cool' and leading from the back that he'd gladly stomp on everyone else if it got him even a single step up!" Weiss threw open the changing room's door yet again with a huff, many an outfit having already been tried by both. Some set aside, some put back.

Coco raised an eyebrow and didn't bother to mask her smirk. Sitting atop a chair with leg crossed over the other, she chuckled. "Well, that just about summarizes what you've been ranting about for the past three outfits. Hey, I think this one fits you."

Coco held up a simple, white overcoat. Flowery, rose-like designs in sky-blue flowed around its sleeves and the bottom of the coat both. The color scheme might've been inverted, but the similarities to Adam's own attire did not pass Weiss by.

She scoffed and crossed her arms. "I am _nothing_ like him!"

"Know-it-all, keeps trying to lead, arrogant..." Each word seemed to leave Weiss with a deeper snarl. Finally, Coco stood up and raised her hands in defeat, leaving the outfit behind. "Alright, alright, I'll drop it... but, I think I finally got the problem." She walked with Weiss towards a mirror.

A departure from Weiss' usual fashion, the thin, gray, tight-fitting sweater she wore was more like a dress, a pale-blue waist cincher breaking up the colorless plane. Weiss nervously adjusted the beret of the same color under Coco's appraising gaze.

Finally, Coco nodded, took off her sunglasses, and slid them onto Weiss, instead. "You're _way_ too much like me."

Weiss blinked, a hint of a smile growing. "Really?"

Coco smirked. "Bad news, kid: that wasn't a compliment. I was a real pain in my teammates' asses, seriously." She retrieved her wallet from her purse. "Go ahead and tell me if any of this sounds familiar: thinks she's way too good for everybody even though she seriously went and joined a Huntress Academy, daddy problems, nose held high, based basically her whole life off of being a heiress instead of a soldier, spoiled, treated her teammates like trash, clashed with basically _everyone_ on campus..."

She flicked a photo over to Weiss. It was half of a standard picture taken when teams were formed. The only two there were a displeased-looking Fox and Coco. At least, Weiss _thought_ it might've been Coco: her hair tied back in a ponytail, a frilled, lengthy, mocha-brown dress and numerous bangles and necklaces, were it not for the golden handcannon holstered at her waist, Weiss would've thought first-year Coco was returning from a prom, not a potentially-deadly initiation.

"... Yeah, see? That face, right there? Shocked, confused and kind of disturbed? That's why I'm here: so you aren't like that every time you think back to now." Coco threw an arm around Weiss' shoulders. "The good news is that you aren't the leader, so you don't need to worry about it as much as I did... but the difference between leader and teammate's kinda blurry in the first place. Why do you think Ozpin draws his team leaders out of a hat?"

That snapped Weiss out of it, leaving her appalled, offended and with her mouth agape. "He _what?_ "

Coco burst into laughter that only got louder at Weiss' confusion. "Oh my god, you are just too easy! I'm joking, I'm joking... but it _is_ the reason he keeps us like this for four years based off of just a couple hours of experience. We've got leaders because the world's got leaders, and sometimes, no matter how arbitrary and stupid it might feel, you've gotta listen to them. Well, unless you can find a loophole, but that's beside the point." She smirked. "Check it: if you think all this arguing about who listens to who is bad now, imagine if you didn't even have someone who called themselves leader?"

Weiss paled, and her eyes widened. "We would keep fighting over it until we perished."

"Which would happen pretty fast." She patted her shoulder. "Truth is, you'll all have your time to lead, one day. Which means that just buddying up to your leader isn't going to cut it. It's not like being an employee where you can keep climbing the ranks by sucking up to the higher-ups: if you're gonna be a good teammate for one, it's gotta be for _everyone else_ , too."

Weiss stared into the mirror, mulling over Coco's words. It wasn't as if she hadn't tried, but all she got back instead were snarky comments and snipes. What was so wrong with simply leaving them to squabble amongst themselves and focus on her own work? Well, besides the fact that such a thing was an impossibility, considering how now their problems could get her thrown out of the Academy she'd sacrificed so much—even nearly costing her an eye—to attend.

She supposed that made it rather obvious what she needed to do: she had to actually... try to befriend them again. Or at _least_ get close enough for one of them to listen to her.

Weiss groaned. "But they're just so... _them._ "

"Yeaaah, I never said it'd be easy." Coco flashed a more sympathetic smile her way. "But, it's not like you haven't been so ' _you'_. Just chill a bit, let your hair down. Everyone's got their reasons, you'll figure theirs out eventually..." She hummed to herself.

"That wasn't all metaphorical, by the way: this outfit would work way better if you let your hair down." Coco motioned to Weiss' hairpin, but she shied away.

"Sorry, I... would rather not."

Coco waved it off. "Alright, alright, fair enough. Still, don't worry, kid. I've got faith in your team."

* * *

"They're going to kill each other and we're gonna get the blame for it," Coco muttered through a fake smile to her teammates as she waved the three girls of RWAY off in Beacon's courtyard. She and Weiss had spent far more than an hour with their chosen(by Coco) partner, and the sun was already beginning to set.

"They need a lot of work," Yatsuhashi agreed. He was the only who spent the hour and little more: it wasn't as if he disliked Yang, it was just that she was a little too fiery for his tastes. They would've been great friends if he was still a first-year though, he had to admit.

Fox crossed his arms. "I don't believe it is that bad. We weren't too dissimilar when we started off." All the way down to the leader having a tough time wrangling everyone else together, as he learned in day-by-day detail from Ruby.

"Important difference, though, Fox: you guys weren't all assholes, too."

Fox loudly cleared his throat and nodded up to their giant friend. Yatsuhashi rolled his eyes, even though he smiled.

Coco had to stifle a laugh. "Alright, point: Yatsu could've given that Yang girl a run for her money back in those days."

" _'Run for her money'?_ " Fox repeated, incredulous. "I don't believe even _she_ is going to scratch at Yatsuhashi's freshman record for fights."

"It could've been higher," Yatsuhashi admitted. "Nel held me back a lot."

The group shared a light chuckle at that, though Coco's came off as more forced than she'd have liked to admit.

"I hope I haven't missed too much," said Velvet as she jogged over to the rest of her team.

"Well, well, nice of you to join us!" Coco crossed her arms, a playful smirk on her face. "Spit it: what kinda shadow is our resident emo casting on the team, because I'm pretty sure he's the other half of the real problem, here."

"More like three quarters of it," Fox muttered under his breath, getting a chortle from Yatsuhashi.

Velvet, though, looked conflicted. Her eyes darted to and fro. "Well, um, about that... I'm not entirely sure what to say. He was... different... from what I've heard."

Coco arched an eyebrow. "He didn't try to smooth talk you, did he? Prodigy team or not, I'll kick his ass, just say the word." She adjusted her purse.

Velvet frantically waved the thought off, blushing. "No, no, it wasn't that! I just... don't get it, that's all." She shrugged. "He was... a nice guy."

Silence. The rest of Velvet's team stared at her as if she had grown a second head. Finally, Coco peered down over her sunglasses and narrowed her eyes.

"Bullshit. Tell me everything."

* * *

 **A/N: Indeed, as you can see, Team CFVY have been boosted up a year. They are now third years and upperclassmen, having even been in the Vytal Festival once before. A slight change, but one I wanted to make to give better explanation for how strong they are.  
**


	7. Red Velvet

**Red Velvet**

* * *

The walk through Beacon's gardens was a peaceful, quiet one for Adam and Velvet. Planted and tended to by students, it was not the most organized of gardens but, bearing all from the pink-petaled cherry blossom trees of Mistral to the lavender, bell-like harebell flowers of Atlas, it carried a myriad of flora. The lively colors and pleasant scent—especially for a faunus—made it all too easy to lose one's self in their thoughts as they wandered the pathway.

It was certainly Velvet's problem at least, for she found it rather hard to spark a conversation with the man walking beside her. Adam was fine with silence, only glancing occasionally in her direction, as if to make sure she was still there at all. That left it to her, she guessed, to try and start conversation... which was a shame, because she was absolutely awful at it. Coco was practically her definition of approachable and she still had problems sparking up a new conversation with her, let alone with someone she'd only seen with some form of a glare or snarl on his face.

That is, until now. Right _now,_ he looked positively peaceful, and that practically had her on more edge than if he was furious. After all, what if whatever she said just ticked him off? Coco knew she didn't like conflict, and the last thing she needed was another student having it out for her. Cardin was bad enough.

"Tell me, Velvet," Adam turned his gaze down on her, "I was under the assumption that there was to be something about being a 'guidance counselor'. Was I incorrect?"

Velvet paled, ready to spring into damage control already, when she turned and found Adam smirking, clearly amused.

"I'm joking. Fixing up a team on short notice is no small feat; I don't envy your team's position."

She looked him over. "You certainly sound... not worried about this."

Adam shrugged and paused to catch a tumbling blossom in his gloved hand. "They'll fix their issues soon enough. Or won't. Yang will have no choice but to let Ruby go, Ruby will eventually take the reins when she figures out no one else will, and the Schnee clearly values her time here too much to interfere."

Velvet raised an eyebrow as she stepped ahead of him. "So you think none of this is your fault?" She couldn't keep the incredulity from her tone.

"Some? Yes. I refuse to follow a child's orders. When she's ready to speak with the intent to be _listened to_ , not just heard, I will comply. No sooner. As for Yang, we've worked out our problems."

"And Weiss?"

Adam's peace vanished, his eyes narrowing with anger and barely-concealed hate. A chill ran up Velvet's spine: she'd seen that kind of hatred before in her hometown when the Schnee Dust Company was involved, yet nothing to the extent she saw now.

Just as quickly as it came, Adam's anger slipped away. He scoffed. "She brought that on herself."

Velvet fidgeted with her hands, not entirely sure where to even begin with that. "... Poor first impressions?"

Adam raised an eyebrow and, smirking, slipped the hat from his head. He brushed his fingers across a black highlight in his hair—no, _horns._ "You could say that."

Adam was a faunus. That... explained so much. The distrust of his team, the clashing with Weiss, the relief at being matched up with her, everything! Velvet realized she must've looked rather silly when she was shocked, for the faunus ahead of her shuddered with barely stifled laughter.

"Don't tell me I've broken you with that little revelation..."

Her ears flopped down in front of her in a futile attempt to hide her embarrassed blush. Adam laughing openly this time didn't help her in the least.

Just when her embarrassment threatened to fester into shame, however, Adam placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's fine. Frankly, I'm just happy that there's someone I can get rid of this stupid thing around. According to Yang, I look like a—and I quote—'total dweeb' with it, and I'm starting to agree with her."

Velvet held back a giggle and raised her ears, even if she still found it a little hard to meet his gaze. "I get it... I tried something a little like that when I got here from Menagerie. According to Coco, though, the top hat just made it _way_ more obvious."

Adam snorted, though when she glanced up, she found his smile more... sympathetic. After a soft squeeze of solidarity to her shoulder, he let go and began walking down the winding pathway. Deciding to sidestep the Weiss problem, Velvet decided to change the subject.

"Maybe we should... focus on Ruby, first?"

"So be it." Adam sighed and looked off towards the tumbling, red petals of Forever Fall not too far away. "Should I start with her prodigal skill, the worrying fact that her leadership skills crumble at the slightest hint of resistance, or the substantially more worrying fact that she sleeps with her weapon?"

She furrowed her brow. "Well, that last one doesn't sound too bad... It's like security, right?"

Adam glanced over at her, face showing no emotion. "I'm not sure if security warrants using it like a body pillow."

Velvet's giggles filled the gardens as they walked along. His satisfied smile didn't escape her notice, either.

* * *

"... It was like he was a different person," Velvet admitted to her team, gathered around her in the courtyard. "A-at least, from what I've heard. It isn't like there aren't any problems, either, but there just wasn't... I don't know... one _central_ problem?"

"Like a lack of confidence or being too overprotective of your sibling," Fox offered.

"Right! Nothing big like that... besides being a faunus in a team with the Schnee heiress, but that can't be _everything_ there is to it..."

"Nah, I think you hit the nail right on the head, Velvet," Coco said as she waved them to follow her back to the dorms. " 'He was a different person.' "

It dawned on Yatuhashi. "A mask."

"See, the big guy gets it: he's probably just putting on airs around the sisters, and probably not too happy about being around a Schnee, especially with how she gets. Sounds like what you've got is the real guy: all you gotta do is get him to take the mask off. Easy!"

Velvet grinned. "Great! How do you think I should do that?"

"Pfft, I don't know. Good luck on that."

Velvet deflated under the laughter of her team, but she could still manage a smile. She knew they didn't mean ill by it.

* * *

Adam seethed as he heard the mocking laughter at Velvet's expense in the cafeteria. Her complaints only seemed to spur on her torturers more, all while not a single soul rose to help her. Conversations went on during lunch like not a soul heard them. His fork stabbed into his steak hard enough to bend it.

Cardin Winchester. What a _nuisance._ Claim as some might that he is only a bully, he and his little crew were exactly what Adam expected when he came to sit alongside humans. Despicable. Petty. Racist. 'Bullying'. It was the latter, of course, that seemed to be bothering Team RWAY—who the Schnee unfortunately rejoined during their meals—and 'JNPR', another team he honestly paid little attention towards. They chattered and jabbered on about how Jaune should do something about Cardin's bullying of him, yet they were all too cowardly to do anything themselves. The specifics escaped Adam.

Frankly, he didn't care. Especially as they disregarded what was going on a mere table away.

"Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me. He's a jerk to everyone," Jaune tried to defend himself and sent a pointed look in Velvet's direction.

Adam's fork snapped. The audacity. The _audacity_ to use her as an excuse, not just to hide from his own problems, but to refuse to help the faunus with hers. He felt someone place a hand on his shoulder, and Ruby's voice distantly calling to him just as his conscience did in Blake's own voice, but it was too late, now. Adam was focused. Adam was _livid._

"You cowards just hide behind your words!" Adam spat and shook Ruby's hand off of him.

The shocked expressions faded into the back of his mind as he stormed forward towards the group.

"What a freak..." One of Cardin's team snarked away, this one not even having the gall to join in. There was no doubt in Adam's mind that he did that only out of fear for being caught, just like his leader was about to be.

Adam snatched Cardin's wrist, his fingers biting into it. Velvet trembled, barely holding back tears, especially now that a genuine confrontation was bringing more and more eyes to them.

"What do you want, Hat Trick?" Cardin had a veritable wealth of aura: a little squeezing at his wrist wasn't going to even make him budge. Instead, he threw a smug grin up at Adam. Huntsmen and huntresses were the worst of the bunch, always believing that their aura put them on an entirely new level than the rest of the population. Combine that with the usual human discriminatory behavior and the hate for anything that so much as looked different, and you had what looked like an unstoppable force of torment for the faunus. But, ah, how they depended on their aura. It was amazing to see how many were all but dependent on it rather than defensive tactics.

Cardin refused to let her ears go. If anything, he tried to pull her even closer. This was a mistake.

Few things could truly turn a Huntsman's dependence on aura against them. The art of aura penetration was one of them. Overpower one's will with your own, and you can simply force your opponents' soul into submission, letting you by without a fight. It was a highly illegal art to learn after the Great War—after all, it is a technique almost solely for murdering other Huntsmen. It took plenty of willpower, plenty of bloodlust, and plenty of luck to find a mentor willing to train you in it... to say nothing of the training required.

Unfortunately for Cardin, Adam had all of that.

Which was why Cardin suddenly felt those fingers crushing his wrist, aura or not. Now, panic began to set in.

"What I _want_ is for creatures like you to disappear... however, I am willing to settle for you to stop this. Forever." Points to Cardin, at least, for keeping a tough face throughout it all. A dull, white light began to gather around his fingertips: Cardin's aura was not broken, left constantly attempting to fill in the gaps in its coverage Adam's piercing fingers left.

"Why should I listen to a faunus-lover like you? Please, and _I'm_ the creature?"

The only response was the twist of a wrist and a muffled, pained grunt from its owner. When Cardin and his crew did not speak up once more, Adam leaned down close and continued:

"Let. Her. Go." The fleshy _crack_ of Cardin's wrist served as the final punctuation, followed swiftly by a cry and him letting the rabbit's ear finally go free. She started to back up, but froze under Adam's glare. The demand to wait was clear in his eyes.

"Apologize."

"W-what?"

A couple students cringed at the much more audible snap. **"Apologize."** Cardin's team was conspicuously missing. The rest of Team RWAY started getting up: this was going way too far. Team JNPR was... less willing to interfere. Pyrrha did not want to cause a scene. Nora wanted to cause a bigger one.

"I-I-I'm sorry, alright! Just, please, just let my hand go! I won't bother her!"

"Apologize to _her!_ " The faunus didn't turn away from Adam's gaze only out of shock. Oh, she knew something like this was going to happen eventually. This was why she never told the rest of her team...

"I'm sorry, Velvet!" Cardin cried, and Adam let his wrist drop like a piece of trash. His aura washed over it before he could even hold it in his other hand. The wound would heal quickly. Adam narrowed his eyes, giving a last warning glare to his advancing team, then turned away. As Velvet took the time to run off, Adam noticed an all too familiar silence: one filled with tension, anger, and unspoken insults. The eyes of the entire cafeteria were on him, now. His team was approaching, now, but it was too late: Adam was riled up, now.

He dramatically swept his hand across the cafeteria. "Oh, so now, this is worth of your attention? Don't act like you all suddenly care for someone else's well-being! Your silence is the only reason it got this far! Like you care about _words_ instead of action!" Oh, how he relished this feeling: an entire crowd's blood turning cold with shame, like a bucket of ice water was thrown on all that hot anger flowing seconds prior. Adam took a breath and raised his hand, only for it to be yanked back down.

"O-o-okay, there, buddy!" Yang said, giving his wrist a brief squeeze. "I know you're seeing red, but don't go jumpin' up on the soapbox." His lips pursed, and his eyes found those of his team. Yang was grinning as always, but it was clearly stressed, and her eyes darted to and fro across the room in search of potential assailants. Weiss was already waiting at the door, clearly not wanting a single part of this. Typical. But, it was Ruby who finally got him to crack: her silver eyes were left full of shock, sadness and worry. Worry not for herself, but rather for _him._

The same worry Blake held.

"Fine." He snatched his hand away, unable to bring himself to look at his team. "They've heard enough." Adam forced himself to calmly walk away. It was best to keep control.

Even if he was running away from that judging gaze.

* * *

Velvet sighed and sat down beneath the shade of a perpetually-red tree at its outskirts. Atop a small hill, it had a commanding view of the endless colors the garden carried. A warm breeze brought the pleasant scent of roses to tickle at her nose. Though her enhanced hearing could still pick up the occasional crack of gunfire or burst of Dust magic from the students training or fighting in Forever Falls, it was still rather quiet. The beauty was lost on her. She was already used to it, by now: half of her lunches were spent here. Good timing could have her escape the majority of students—including those who were less than inclusive—during on-campus breakfast and dinners. Lunch, not so much.

And it was looking like she was going to be spending even more time here. Even now, dressed in her normal gear for the next combat training, she decided it was best to wait her free period out here and let things cool off. There was no way Cardin was going to leave her be, after that. If anything, it'd just draw more attention. It wasn't as if she didn't want to be helped—expected or not, seeing only one even willing to do so hurt—but, if anything, that might just drag Adam right in with it.

"Velvet." She jumped in place with a squeak. Speak of the devil. Adam stood just beside her, leaning against the tree. "Feeling alright?"

"Yeah, yeah... I'm used to it, by now." Velvet looked down towards the garden, arms on her knees. She wasn't sure how she felt about this: upset that it happened, angry at Adam for probably making it worse, thankful, ashamed. Velvet guessed that might've said a lot about how often anyone helped her, in the first place.

"Common occurrence?" She could hear the scowl in his voice. Her ears drooped lower. It was answer enough. "Cardin?" His boot scratched at the bark as he kicked off of the tree.

"No!" She flinched at how loudly that came out. "No, it's just... a few people. Two or three. That's all, though!" When Velvet looked up, Adam didn't look convinced. She glanced away. An awkward silence settled.

"... Thank you, though," Velvet brought herself to say. "Would you believe it's the first time someone stood up for me in the past two months?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Adam grunted.

Velvet couldn't help but giggle. "Well, either way, it did mean a lot..."

More silence. Just as Velvet began to speak again, however, she caught Adam suddenly turn to her out of the corner of her eye.

"You shouldn't be afraid to look me in the eye," he said.

Velvet forced herself to look at him. Frustration was written all across his furrowed brow and narrowed gaze. The grip on the weapon he always lugged around was tight and fierce. "It's not fear, it's just... I..." She forced a smile. "I'll be fine in the future, honest. You don't need to stick your neck out for me, Adam."

" 'Don't need to'?" Adam repeated with almost-offended incredulity. "We are _faunus_! We stick our necks out for each other, Velvet, no matter what. None of us should have to just sit there and accept being treated like dogs. We deserve better. _You_ deserve better."

"But that didn't help!" She bit her lip, trying to hold back words that'd already been spoken. Adam glared at her, and it only solidified her regret. She didn't want a fight... but now, she was forced to explain herself. "I've seen that kind of thing before, Adam. All that's going to happen is he's going to come back with more friends, or target some other faunus—"

"And I'll defend them, as well."

"You and I can't be everywhere, though!" Velvet sprung to her feet. "Unless you're walking around with the entire faunus population, he's going to find someone to take his anger out on."

The man tensed, and his emerald eyes briefly darkened to an angry orange before lightening up. His expression faded from one of growing frustration and anger to solemn acceptance. With a soft frown and a softer tone, he said, "I see. Then he must be... dissuaded further." Whatever intention was behind that tone, it sent chills up her spine, and certainly not the good kind.

"You aren't getting it, Adam. Whatever you do to defend me, he's probably just going to do to someone else, or worse! It's just... mindless escalation until someone's either hurt... or wearing a mask." That one left Adam gritting his teeth. "It's the same reason I don't tell my team. If it isn't me, it's someone else... and I'd rather have it be me."

Adam couldn't even believe what he was hearing. It was like talking once more to the miners so afraid of reprisal that they wouldn't so much as question lack of safety.

"Those words are the bonds that held us down for centuries! Do you think Cardin will just stop with you, or the next person, or the next after that? He will just continue spreading that hatred and ignorance further, to more humans who will crush more faunus! Can't you see, Velvet? We cannot lie down and simply take it! We have to fight back!" He slammed his fist to his chest. "It's the only way we've ever made it through, and that won't change! _You_ are the upperclassman, _you_ are the one who should be in control!"

"Fighting fire with fire will never make it better! It's just more hate and fear and ignorance." Velvet took a deep breath to calm herself and turned her gaze once more to the ground. "It's just like the White Fang... it's the entire reason I even left Menagerie. Hatred and anger won't help anyone..."

She could feel Adam's glare boring down into her.

 _"Weak words for weaker people,"_ he hissed.

Now, it was Velvet's turn to tense. "So, is that what this is? You just think I'm weak, huh?"

Adam said nothing, but his silence said enough: if she so truly believed the best way to stop oppression was to lie down and take it with a smile, well... he'd seen plenty of leaders like her.

Without bringing her eyes back to his, she turned on her heel and marched off deeper into the Forever Falls.

Adam sneered. "Running away?"

Velvet stared at him over her shoulder, brown eyes carrying a certain determination behind them that, briefly, gave Adam pause. "No, I'm just proving a point. Are you coming?" She kept her gaze level, daring him to refuse.

When faced with that, Adam had no choice but to accept, following behind her without a word.

If Adam wanted her to stand up to herself, Velvet thought, fine. She'd start with him.

* * *

"Well?" Adam stared down Velvet, his arms crossed. The two stood in a grove surrounded by trees, every gust of wind leaving only more of the forever red leaves tumbling to the ground around them. "Go ahead. Prove it, then."

Velvet retrieved a large case from her waist. "First to a single, solid hit."

Adam rolled his eyes. How arbitrary.

"You seem awfully confident... how about we make things more interesting, then? You win, and I'll admit you're right. I'll even take Cardin down a peg the next time he tries something. But if _I_ win... then you have to give peace a chance."

He scoffed. "It never works."

To that, Velvet only smiled. "Don't lose, then~"

Adam rolled his shoulders and flicked his hat away. "Fine. I accept your challenge. Let's make this quick." He glared down at Velvet as, rather than take whatever weapon was within the case out, she daintily set it off to her side. As if she didn't need it. He was just about to toss his own weapon aside when Velvet held a hand up.

"Don't. You'll need it." This was certainly a lot of _very aggravating_ confidence coming from this girl. "Besides, ammo for that costs too much. Trust me." Her proceeding to draw a small, light-blue, likely expensive Dust crystal from a pack at her waist did not help his growing annoyance. "Whenever you're ready..."

But, he was better than to fall to his own tricks. There was no point in taking this too seriously... besides, he could end this in a swift stroke. Red grass shifted under boots as both fell into defensive stances. For a second, the only sound was the whistling of wind through trees.

Adam was behind Velvet in the blink of an eye, walking away from her and flicking his hand back to tap her head. Only a chance glance back, however, stopped him from making a critical error.

Rather than being caught unaware, Velvet was already twisting to face him. In fact, her foot was also flying towards his head. Barely a fraction of a second to adjust himself, Adam spread his feet wide and strengthened his stance, blocking her strike and saving himself from what would've been humiliation. She was quick, but he wasn't going to let a good prediction stop him.

Adam threw her leg back and turned to throw kick of his own at Velvet, forcing her to leap away. She had barely even touched the ground before he was sliding across the grass foot-first. Her stance would be weaker, less steady. They could accelerate and move faster than cars, but gravity was a constant. It'd be an assured trip.

At least, so he thought, for as Velvet hopped up again and snapped a lightning-fast kick at him, Adam was forced to jerk his head back and finish his slide on his back. She missed by barely an inch, scattering blades of grass across his face.

So, then she was fast and clever.

Grunting in annoyance, he kicked off of a tree to maintain his momentum and the offensive. She ducked beneath a roundhouse as he came back towards her and parried a palm strike when he landed, only confirming his observation. So, Adam decided to defeat her in a contest of endurance, throwing kick after kick, strike after strike in a flurry of blows he'd trained in using countless times. He learned two things. The first was that Velvet was most definitely a kickboxer like him.

The second was that they had disturbingly similar fighting styles. It was like fighting a mirror: even her _stance_ was identical. She matched each blow, each feint, until the strikes left his leg feeling numb even through his aura. Only his final, forceful kick got past her guard, forcing her to block with her arms and slamming her back into a tree.

Velvet lowered her guard and winked. Was she daring to _mock_ him?

His rational mind warned him that he was getting drawn in just as Yang was with him. All the way down to trying to teach this third-year a 'lesson'... but that didn't matter, now. Adam saw _red._

He pulled Blush's trigger, sending Wilt out in a blur almost unrecognizable in the bright-red surroundings with him right behind it. Its hilt, even his follow-up slashes normally faster than his usual opponents could see, were both blocked by a pulsing, sky-blue wall of force.

The glow of the crystal in Velvet's hand flickered, and the shield shattered under a final blow. She raised an eyebrow. "Finally taking me seriously? Good."

Wilt swung out and was back in its sheath three times in a single second. Each time, Velvet slipped and slid by as graceful as the wind, inching ever closer through his guard until she'd grown close enough to attack. Adam hadn't seen when she'd grabbed a red Dust crystal, but the roar of flames around her incoming punch was not a good sign.

Even when blocking with Wilt, the explosive force sent him skidding backwards. His foot caught on a root. Adam's balance precariously shifted backwards. His sight turned skyward. He was falling, and that would be it. Failure. Just like that.

Adam refused. With a grunt of exertion and pain from fighting gravity and inertia alike, he flared his aura and forced himself to stand. Not one more inch backwards! She might've been stronger than he'd believed—he dared think to himself that she'd proven her point—but his _pride_ wouldn't let him go down like this.

By the time he'd focused, the space between them was full of flames. Some snaked through the air in erratic patterns, others were brutish fireballs meant to bowl him over. He could jump back and force her to lose sight in the trees. He could dive and take cover. But he was a man of his word. _Not one more inch backwards!_

Scorching heat licked and lapped at Adam's skin and clothes as he sprinted forward into the inferno. Body twisting around and between each orb and spear of fire he could dodge and cutting clean through those he could not, he advanced without breaking step nor losing speed. He was rewarded with the look of Velvet wide-eyed and mouth agape as he plunged through a final fireball, the end of his sheath lunging for her.

Instinct took over for Velvet, and she hurriedly raised her arms in front of her face. The fire Dust crystal, bright and flickering from the constant use dropped from her hand.

Unfortunately for both, it was the crystal that the point of Adam's sheath struck.

With a sharp crack and explosive wave of force, the nearly-spent crystal shattered, all its remaining energy used to blast the two of them away from each other. Adam crashed into the grass and tumbled across the dirt until he could flip up to his feet. He rose up to only find a shroud of smoke. Gasping for air, Adam wiped away the sweat on his forehead and waited. Waited to see if Velvet would have the nerve to call that their solid hit, or if she would wrongfully concede. On the other side of that shroud, he was sure Velvet was doing the same.

She was panting on the other side, but said nothing. They had their answer: neither were content with ending it at that.

Leaves crunched under Velvet's foot while she crept along the perimeter of the smoke and flame. Unlike the rest of her spells, that burst was uncontrolled. She couldn't just have it put itself out like she did for the rest. Besides, she had Dust, she could put it out in an instant... even if she might have to do some explaining, later.

She might've gotten carried away a little—

Velvet jerked her head out of the Wilt's way as it shot towards her, crimson blade so close she could briefly see her reflection on its polished side and feel the heat from its Dust-powered propulsion on her cheek. The smoke ahead burst open just long enough for a black blur to slip through. Velvet twisted on her heel, nimbly withdrew another fire crystal from her pouch and raised her other hand. Adam's swing cracked off of yet another shield of light, but he was already in the middle of his next swing by the time she'd noticed.

Their bout next to the swaying smoke was less a fight and more a dance, each swaying and twirling out of the way of the other's blows. So close that their footwork threatened to have them stepping on the other's toes—a tactic both also tried and failed at—they evaded crimson flashes of a blade, sharp kicks, thrusts of energetic shields and jabs that left darts of controlled flame in their wake. Neither wanted to risk blocking, now: it was a game of speed and endurance ever increasing, with either unable to break their gaze from the other for more than a fraction of a second.

Velvet's shield shattered. The force knocked both crystals from her hands, spent and colorless already. Adam saw his chance. Turning and bringing all the momentum of their dance into a final twist, he swung Wilt out for the finishing, aura-pumped blow.

He never saw Velvet snatching up a final pair of crystals.

She lifted her hand towards his blade, and he felt his blade grow heavy. A purple crystal. Gravity.

Adam's eyes followed his swing passing low beneath Velvet's chest. He missed. The force, amplified but now aimless, struck out with such force that it whipped away the smoke and flame beside them in a rush of wind. Adam was distracted by the burst, but only momentarily. His eyes had snapped back to Velvet before his swing had even finished. He could salvage this. He let the momentum take him, turning his entire form so that his rifle would turn to her.

Velvet's fist buried itself in his gut. The breath was driven from him. Wilt flew from his hand into a tree behind him.

He'd lost.

Catching his breath, Adam stumbled a few steps back, eyes wide. Had that just happened?

"W-well..." Velvet was left panting as well, though the confidence was unmistakable in her tall stature and subtle cock of her hips. "You're... _way_ stronger than I thought you'd be."

"... Likewise." He was still in shock. Had he just lost to someone who couldn't even protect herself from a schoolyard bully?

"Don't forget our bet, now... and _also_ don't forget that just because someone isn't," she giggled, " 'kicking ass and taking names,' as Coco would say, doesn't mean that they _can't._ " Velvet strolled up and teasingly flicked Adam's nose, snapping him out of his daze. He couldn't even bring himself to be angry. Adam was plenty of things, right now: impressed, devastated, confused, amazed, frustrated... but not angry. It was rare.

Adam had forced himself out of his thoughts just long enough to tear Wilt out from the tree it had buried itself inside, when Velvet held his hat out towards him. "Does anyone in your team know that you're a faunus?"

He shook his head. "Not yet." His horns were once more covered up by the homburg. "They'll figure it out eventually—it's not a great disguise—but, maybe I'll tell them, in time."

Velvet frowned a little and knitted her brow in thought. Finally, she sighed. "If you say so..."

The two soon parted, Velvet carrying a bounce in her step and confidence in her smile, Adam's gaze turned down and mind churning in thought. Neither were noticed in the students passing along to their next classes, lost in the river of man and faunus alike.

* * *

"Absolutely not!" The Schnee's shrieks were never going to stop getting on his nerves, Adam swore as they and the rest of the team lingered in one of Beacon's halls. "I don't care what you were doing or if combat training is next, you're at least changing into a different uniform. I'm not having my partner strutting around reeking of sweat and ash like some filthy _animal!_ " The sneer was even heard in her voice.

 _Animal._

Adam gritted his teeth and stalked away before doing something the Schnee would regret.

He knew that humans like her would no doubt find his true nature to accept, however, it would be revealed inevitably. Hate it as he might, even if solely for the insults he knew he would fail to weather from that Schnee girl, Adam would tell have to tell them on his own terms.


	8. Defrosting

**Defrosting**

* * *

This was not his own terms.

"W-wait, no! Get off!" The urgent yet hushed sound of Yang's voice woke Adam up in the middle of the night. Without thinking, years of instinct had him springing up to a sitting position, flaring his aura and snatching up Wilt from his side.

 **CRACK!**

Years of instinct built up _without_ him having ever slept in a bunk bed.

As Adam groaned from the fierce pain and reached up to rub his head, he noticed that the entire room had become silent. Turning his eyes to the center of the room, instead of seeing however the Schnee reacted, emerald eyes met lilac and silver. Ruby and Yang leaned over Yang's bed, staring at him upside-down in a mix of curiosity and wariness. Blonde and red hair formed a curtain that obscured the room beyond. The girls had actually suggested, once, that he leave a blanket draped down from Yang's bed onto his own so that he wouldn't need to leave the room every time they needed a little privacy. Adam had refused: knowing his surroundings as he slept was worth the inconvenience.

Ruby and Yang were content to just stare. Adam, not so much.

He scowled and narrowed his eyes. "What was that noise?" he asked calmly, yet the cold edge in his tone was unmistakable.

The two girls looked between each other and awkwardly chuckled. "Well... ya see, Ruby and I got into a little argument, and it got a little heated, so it kinda became a..." Yang trailed off for a brief moment, and Adam arched an eyebrow. Strange. Over the course of the past two months, he'd believed the two of them to be all but inseparable, let alone how bizarrely cheerful the two were at all times. Could they really have started fighting?

"Tickle fight."

Oh. Of course. Of _course_ it was.

"A tickle fight at..." The Moon was halfway between the top of the window's frame and the horizon, which made it... "Three in the morning." How the Schnee girl was asleep, right now, he hadn't the slightest clue.

"It was a _really_ heated argument!" Ruby protested against Adam's agitation.

He closed his eyes and sighed: maybe he was getting a little too jumpy. These girls were going to drive him insane. "Fine, fine, just... keep it quiet or keep it away from _me._ " With that, Adam laid his head back down to sleep.

Or, at least, he would have, if he did not instead find his head jerking painfully forward and the rest of his body not budging. Grunting, he reached up towards his hair, and froze as his fingers brushed across splintered wood.

Oh no.

He frantically searched across his hair with his fingers, bringing them across his horn to find...

Oh no, no, no.

His horns were stuck in the bed frame.

Eyes wide, he tried to see if Yang and Ruby were still there. They weren't. Excellent. He could still hear them mumbling, but he could work with that. Sisters or not, he doubted they were going to stay—or fit—on that bed, so time was limited. If either noticed him still sitting up, they'd start asking questions.

He tried rocking his head and wriggling his horns to free them, but to no avail. They weren't moving! How was he going to get them out silently! Adam's mind went into overdrive, and his cheeks grew red with frustration and embarrassment both: this kind of thing hadn't happened since he was a child! This brought new meaning to the word demeaning! This incident would inevitably become stuck in his mind, rising at the poorest of times! This infuriated him to no end! This... this...

This room was silent, again.

Adam froze. With dread, he turned his eyes towards the center of the room.

Emerald eyes met silver once more.

"Adam, are you..."

"I'm fine!" he barked in a much more shrill fashion than he wanted, but, years of honing his aggression still got the point across perfectly. Too perfectly, he immediately decided as, while Ruby vanished back to the bed above, a particularly angry Yang dropped back down into view.

"I know we woke you up, but that's no reason to shout..." The building rage faded from her eyes just as her words faded from her mouth. "... Adam, what's with your... hair..." The silence, this time, lasted far too long.

"Are... you a faunus?" Ruby's voice, innocent and curious, quietly called to him from above. His eyes remained locked onto Yang's. More ice than the Schnee could ever summon fell into his stomach as he saw her mouth twitch. Then again. Then, it grew into a devious grin.

"Are you _stuck?_ "

Adam grimaced and tried to hide beneath the quiet that permeated through the room.

Yang flipped herself off of the bed and was quick to lean over towards him. "What was that?" she asked.

 _"Yes,"_ he hissed.

"Sorry, couldn't hear you~"

"YES!" Adam roared, his cheeks as red as Ruby's coat, his frustration and embarrassment overriding his desire to stay collected, and his loyal Wilt burning inside of its sheath. He withheld his groan as he saw the Schnee finally rise from her bed and yank something—earplugs, so _that_ was how she stayed asleep—out from her ears. As Yang collapsed to the floor in uproarious laughter, their gaze met. Shock, anger, disdain and understanding all flashed across her eyes before she settled simply on narrowing them at him. Adam prepared to fire back with everything he had, and then she... put her earplugs back in and laid down with a sigh.

In his shock, he almost forgot that Yang and now Ruby were both laughing.

"Would you two just STOP!" Yang's laughter, at least, faded, and her face fell flat. Just before Adam could feel a shred of his dignity return, her face split into that dreaded grin again.

She took her sweet time strolling closer and sat down on the side of his bed. "Ooooh, I see, you don't _need_ any help, right? You're the big bad Adam, _surely_ you aren't stuck at all, and I can just hop ri~ight back into bed. You'll be fine!" Ignoring Adam's protests, she slipped off his bed and sprung back up into her own. The sharp jerk and vibration of the board his horns were stuck in only hurt and infuriated him more.

"Are you sure we shouldn't help? He looks a little mad..." Ruby mumbled, the thought of sleep now having thoroughly left the minds of the three.

"Pfft, what makes you think that?" Yang closed her eyes, crossed her legs and flicked them up onto the foot board. Ruby looked down at the positively seething Adam wriggling and bucking his head back in a desperate attempt to free himself without causing damage. But Adam wasn't just seething.

"Well, he's kinda... glowing?" Sure enough, his rage had built to the point where his Semblance was bleeding through: cold, blood-red light emanated from the bed beneath them, pouring from his hair and turning his eyes the color of blood. Yang peeked an eye open.

"Get. Off. The bed," Adam commanded.

"And why should we do that? You've got it handled, _right,_ Red Bull?"

"I'm cutting it down." In a flurry of rose petals, Ruby was already atop her bed.

Yang crossed her arms, not budging one bit. "Nuh-uh. I don't believe you." She heard the subtle _click_ of his blade being drawn. "... Buuut, that doesn't mean I won't see if I can get you some help, anyway! C'mon Ruby, someone has to know about how to get something unstuck!" Yang said with an awkward chuckle, and the two of them were off before Adam could make good on his threat. Adam, however, was fully prepared to just slice the bed in twain and deal with the consequences later.

"You're not going to get anywhere just jerking it around like that," the Schnee girl spoke up. Trying to bring his eyes to hers, Adam only found that she had her back turned towards him. She must've seen his silence as reason to continue.

"Move it slower, but you might need a little bit of red dust to burn it out, if they aren't sensitive." Stuck between losing his pride as a faunus and losing his dignity as everything else, Adam grimaced, and chose his dignity. Slowly, but surely, he rocked his horns out, unfortunately needing to spend one of his premium dust cartridges for Blush to burn away some of the wood, after all. Free at last, Adam let out a deep sigh of relief and dropped his head down onto his pillow.

Silence.

"That's an odd thing to know," Adam commented. For a moment, he wondered if the Schnee had fallen back asleep while he freed himself from that dreaded bed.

"I... had a couple problems with Myrtenaster, when I first used it." He could faintly hear the smile in her voice. Perhaps it was due to Adam venting his frustration at the bed, but he felt a surprising lack of contempt for Schnee. Adam could still feel it there, lurking, unable to die just as he was unable to forget, and yet...

"Thanks." He could see her jolt and tilt her head back just enough to look in his direction.

She let out a mirthless chuckle. "Don't."

Adam arched an eyebrow. With a snort, he was set to leave it at that, but the Schnee flicked her hand back towards him, and something gleamed in the moonlight as it flew through the air. Instinct had Adam swipe it before he even recognized that something was thrown at all. He—slowly—sat up and opened his hand. It was another pair of earplugs.

" _Now_ you can thank me," Schnee chimed, and none too soon, for the door was promptly thrown open, and in came Ruby and Yang carrying handfuls of what looked like everything from butter to soap to popcorn.

"Awww, he already got out..." Yang huffed.

"Well, more for us!" Ruby cheered and, grinning, jumped up onto her bed with an armful of food. Were they just planning to watch him? Adam snorted in agitation and laid his head down, closing his eyes just as Yang sprung back up to her own bed. He'd need to work on it again, tomorrow, to make it higher...

"So, yeah, what was I saying? Ooh yeah! I never saw a guy squeal so loud, before! Cardin's got a set of lungs like you wouldn't _believe!_ " Certain that the two wouldn't be going to going to sleep any time soon, Adam looked down at his earplugs, slipped them in, and drifted off to a pleasant slumber.

"Thanks, Weiss." He murmured under his breath. Across the room, Weiss smiled and put her own plugs back in. A girl needed her beauty sleep, after all.

* * *

"Sooooo," Yang woke him up the next day as Ruby left for her shower. Adam grumbled, shook his earplugs out and blearily opened an eye.

"Does being a bull faunus come with any _other_ perks?~" She actually _winked_ at him. He heard a scandalized scoff behind Yang from the Schnee, and only stared blankly at her before turning himself right back over.

One month down, forty-seven to go.

 _Wonderful._

* * *

It was Team CFVY's idea that they should actually try to spend more time together as a team, rather than just Ruby and Yang. For a month, he had remained fine with keeping to himself and his classes. The only times he'd break from his rigid schedule to make sure that the Schnee wasn't bothering Ruby again—something that no longer seemed to be an issue. His detachment had grown to the point where he was surprised to see that JNPR had joined them for lunch, one day, and was even more surprised when he was told they'd done so for the past week.

Though, the two sisters decided without his input that it was because he was too busy talking with Velvet, who had also decided to sit with them.

Eventually, after some needling from the faunus girl, he'd folded and decided to give them a try. At least for a week. That was two weeks ago. It was as he sat on the floor with Ruby and Yang, playing some strategy game simply called 'Remnant' with them that Adam realized, with dawning horror, that he was actually beginning to enjoy spending time with the two sisters.

Were they overly happy and optimistic? Yes. Did he really miss having personal space around the two? Also yes. But, they were a breath of fresh air. Frankly, not counting his time with Blake, most of his time as a teenager was spent commanding or forcing himself to fit in with people well above his age. Ilia was a brief exception, but her agreements with Ghira's cowardice had left their friendship... strained.

It left little time for relaxation, let alone genuine friendships.

The Schnee, however, did not fold as he did. She preferred her studies even now, lingering at her desk with her books while they played. As Ruby jumped up in victory at wiping half of Yang's forces out in a failed invasion on Vale—even if it was at Adam's suggestion—the Schnee grunted and slammed her textbook shut, snapping the three out of their reverie.

"Can't you three do that somewhere else? Maybe where people _aren't studying?_ " She hissed with a surprising amount of venom for such a minor incident.

"No one ever said you had to study here, _Princess_ ," Adam growled on instinct, not even needing to think. The Schnee's fist clenched tight, and without another word, she snatched up her books, got up with enough force to send the chair clattering to the ground, and stormed off. Perhaps it was just his keen sight, however, but Adam noticed something odd when her eyes narrowed into a familiar glare and her nose crinkled in anger. Beneath the usual indignant rage was just the smallest hint of pain.

Oh well.

It was only after a few more turns that Yang finally suggested, albeit halfheartedly. "So... should we... see what's wrong with her, or something?" Both her and Adam looked over at Ruby: as far as they knew, she was the only one who was getting close to her.

"... What?"

"I thought you were her new friend!"

"Well... uh..." Ruby's eyes darted around the room. "Heeeey, Adam, you're her partner, why don't you—"

"No." The fact that he hadn't succumbed to his White Fang instincts and strangled her to death should've been worthy of an award.

"Aw, come on! This should be easy!" Yang clapped a hand on his shoulder.

At first, Adam didn't even spare it a thought, instead glancing down at his cards and contemplating his next move in the game. Right up until he remembered his little 'bet' with Velvet. Give peace a chance...

He sighed: this was absolutely foolish, but something told him unless he dragged Ruby along with him, she wasn't going to try and talk to an angry Schnee, and Yang might just make matters worse after her petulance ticks her off. With a shake of his head, he got up, grabbed Wilt from his bed and threw his hat on.

"Fine, I'll go." It'd certainly be enough to shake off Velvet's needling. More importantly, when this ended exactly as he thought this would, he could prove the strategy's failing to Velvet.

"Don't worry, Adam, I'll take your turns! I'll defend the gates of Mistral with my life!" Ruby brought her hand across her chest, saluting with a sunny grin. Adam snorted as he reached the door.

"If I lose, you're getting court-martialed."

* * *

None of this was fair!

Weiss sprung off of a glyph and dug her rapier through the training dummy ahead, then kicked off of it to flip behind and slash another across the chest at her rear. Her books laid scattered and forgotten beside the entrance.

She wasn't the one that started physical fights with her own team! She was the first to sit with those two sisters! First to really accept Ruby as a leader! First to offer the olive branch!

Weiss twirled in time with the natural rhythm of combat and sent a ray of Dust to freeze the arms of another target.

What did she get for her trouble and sacrifices? She got shoved aside for that _faunus_ , Adam!

She was half an inch off of her strikes. Awful. Weiss returned to her starting stance and took a deep breath.

And of _course_ he was a faunus. Frankly, Weiss felt a fool for never noticing that staring her right in the face. Adam was cruel, but even more so with just her. The first time they'd even spoke was him insulting her with her family name. The hat. Getting along with Velvet. Being so... rough around the edges. Of course he'd hate her if he was a faunus. Of course she'd have no chance to get closer: she lost that before it even began.

Her glyph was a fraction too large: it'd be an easy target to strike in a fight. Weiss returned to her starting stance once more. Again. She'd do this routine until she was perfect. Irreplaceable.

It was the only choice she had left. With Adam having somehow managed to slip his way in with the sisters before she could, there was no doubt that he would turn them against her. Frankly, it'd already begun. Weiss knew how this kind of thing worked, and cursed herself for not getting in first while she could. The problem was just that... she didn't know what to do. What to say.

She'd observed enough to know how friendships worked—such was how she knew how Adam's growing influence would be a problem—just not how they started. Her childhood was being fawned over by private tutors, business partners and politicians, then being expected to fit in just fine with them. Contact with others of her age were with other heirs and to-be influential people. Networking, nothing more, nothing less. More people to put on airs around. More to impress.

It left little time for relaxation, let alone genuine friendships.

Weiss snarled, caring little for how unladylike she looked. She'd missed one of the dummies altogether. She was slipping! Weiss reset the dummies' positions and, as she had many times already, returned to her starting position. She raised her rapier, formed a glyph to speed her up, took her first step, right foot first—

"Your stance is too rigid." Weiss nearly stumbled and fell on the spot. She turned a dirty look at the interloper. Adam.

She refused to give him the victory of seeing her scowl.

"If the only reason you came here was to insult me, you can turn and leave, now. I get it." She did not give him the chance to respond, instead thrusting at a dummy to begin her routine all over again. She'd managed to have a few seconds to herself, able to cut her way through her imagined foes to the invisible rhythm of battle she kept in her mind. Weiss had even believed that Adam had actually listened to her for once and left, right up until a crimson blade lashed out from beside her without warning, knocking Myrtenaster out of her hands.

Disbelief came over her face, and her aura roared to life in preparation to defend herself.

But, when Myrtenaster clattered to the ground, no second attack came. Adam snorted in derision, and by the time Weiss snapped around to face him, his blade was already back in its sheath.

"You said you were studying; why are you here, instead?" She growled in annoyance at Adam's continued criticism and reached for her blade, but Adam took a calm step and rested his foot on top of it. So then, he was forcing the issue.

"What does it matter? I'm getting better. That's all you care about, isn't it?" Weiss crossed her arms, clearly just wanting this over and done with. Adam only glared at her until she was forced to speak again or continue to live in tense silence.

"If I can barely have a team, then I need to make sure I'm the best on my own." More silence. She growled. "What do you want from me!"

To Adam, it was a good question: he wouldn't have come here if he hadn't made that bet, so he supposed a better one to ask would have been what Ruby and Yang wanted out of this. They probably shouldn't have sent him to deal with these emotions. He was a bit... blunt. As he watched the Schnee, taking in the suspicious lack of malice for a faunus like himself in her eyes, the turn of her body away and flick of her eyes down to her weapon showing her simple desire to escape, and her fists balled tightly enough to look pale even against her light skin, Adam grew curious. He believed he knew what Ruby and Yang wanted to know.

"Why are you always angry?" Adam didn't even bother slipping in one of the numerous insults he could have added.

The Schnee gaped at him. "Excuse me? Why am _I_ so angry? Coming from the one who spends all his time brooding, scowling or finding another way to insult me?" she threw back at him with indignation.

"You didn't answer me."

"Why should I! What do you care, anyway? It's been over a _month,_ Adam. Over a month, and all I hear from you is 'Schnee' this, 'Princess' that. Even _Yang_ slipped and called me 'Schnee', once! We're supposed to be partners, but you just stand there and treat me like I'm your worst enemy. Shouldn't I be just a _little_ angry that you've managed to turn the team against me when I'm supposed to be entrusting my life to you? In fact, here's a better question that you never answered: what have _I_ done to _you?_ " The Schnee stomped closer, face red with growing frustration. It was as if she had not heard him the first time, like she'd completely forgotten the sins of her family.

Adam shifted his jaw and forced down the numerous shots he could've taken at her family. "What do you want?"

The heiress wrinkled her nose in agitation at not being answered, then took a deep breath, stepped back and crossed her arms. "I want a chance," she replied simply.

Adam raised an eyebrow. "... A chance."

"Yes, Adam, a chance. A chance to actually get close to my team, and a chance to actually have the people I fight alongside be my friends, too. Including you." Adam's first response came out faster than he could think: he laughed derisively. She must've been delusional to think he would ever befriend a Schnee! She had outright lost her mind! She... looked so dejected.

It was brief, for not even a second before it fell to an ice-cold glare, but Adam could still see it. His laughter died out. This would only cause the problem of her anger to grow greater, and even though he'd love to see another body added to the Schnee mausoleum, if her wrath caused her to become distracted and fall in battle, it would only drag him down too. That was why Adam decided to take a different route.

That's what he told himself, anyway. That brief look of pain had nothing to do with it...

Adam silently kicked her rapier back up to her.

"Your grip is too loose. Did you have a trainer? Sparring partners?" She frowned and her glare intensified, but she remained silent as she walked back to her starting position and readied herself.

"One." Were he a lesser man, Adam might have actually been put off by just how frigid her tone was, even in something so simple. Instead, he only hummed and began walking away. He stopped on the other side of the hall and turned, unsheathing Wilt.

"As I thought. Let's change that." Adam readied his blade. The Schnee tilted her head in confusion and, slowly but surely, he could see the ice in her eyes already beginning to thaw.

She raised her rapier.

"Is fighting the _only_ way you can connect to people?" she asked, her lips quirking upwards into a smile she so desperately tried to hide.

Adam matched her expression. "Possibly."

They lunged.

* * *

"If no one personally trained you, how did you learn? I would have expected the Schnees to be able to afford the best of the best." Adam's curiosity had gotten the best of him as they parted from yet another clashing of blades. She huffed and jumped off of a glyph past him.

"I don't appreciate—" She hurled a number of ice shards to force Adam to roll out of the way. "Talking while I work!" Wilt suddenly launched itself from Adam's sheath. While she could dodge the blade itself, she couldn't be so quick when Adam all but appeared at her side to snatch the blade from the air and slash at her. Forced into close combat, they traded blows.

"If you cannot fight while distracted, you'll never survive." When she didn't respond, Adam lashed out with his foot at her wrist, knocking her rapier from her hand. The next kick struck her cheek, throwing her down right next to it. Adam enjoyed that a little more than what he would consider to be healthy.

"Your grip is still loose," he chastised her as he sheathed his blade. Schnee only rolled her eyes, mumbling something about him being 'such a brute' while she retrieved her weapon.

"If you must know, I spent most of my time battling against androids and practicing routines. My father did not exactly want me to become a Huntress in the first place." She got to her feet and brushed herself off. "I'm not stupid, I could see when he was trying to interfere when every trainer _coincidentally_ had a full class."

"And what of simply finding others to fight with?"

She scoffed at that one. "Would _you_ want to be the one trying to beat up the heiress to the entire Schnee Dust Company?" The two stared at one another. "... Don't answer that."

Adam merely held a hand up in his defense.

* * *

Weiss kept a better grip on Myrtenaster, this time: his kick towards her wrist was instead responded to by a point-blank burst of ice that sent him flying across the grounds. Adam rolled back up to his feet just in time to block a stab aimed at his chest.

"And what about you, hm?" she asked him. "Who taught you how to fight?" Adam was lucky: had this been even two weeks prior, he might have even spoken Branwen's name. Now, however, he knew just how much trouble it could cause with the never-mentioned daughter on his own team.

He smirked and forced her back with a series of swift swings. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Let's just say my trainer was a rather odd woman and leave it at that."

"You can't keep all these secrets forever, Adam..." Her rapier thrust not at him but the ground, sending ice suddenly rushing across it and his feet alike, freezing him in place. Schnee turned her weapon's cylinder.

"I have more secrets than you can imagine, Schnee."

She let out a laugh and lunged forward.

"How dramatic."

* * *

"You never answered my question, you know," the heiress mentioned at random when they—she—ran out of energy to keep taking out their frustrations through combat. When had he started talking so languidly with a Schnee? It only truly clicked in Adam's head, now, as the two lounged on a bench and sipped from water bottles, just how much this went against everything he'd once fought for.

Seeing Adam's silence as a motion to continue, she went on: "What did I—no, what did my _family—_ do to you to have you attack me so much?"

He wordlessly turned his eyes towards hers. After a couple moments, he just drained his bottle and stood up. "It might pay to glance at one of those 'faunus-sympathizing' articles, some time. Perhaps in time I'll tell you, but for now, just know that they did enough." Adam walked off towards the door, just now remembering that the game of Remnant he was playing was likely long over.

"Another one of your little secrets?" she tried to joke, but the crimson glare Adam threw over his shoulder choked out any humor she might have been going for. In that brief glance there was far more anger than she had seen in even Yang's at her most livid. In a way, she saw a connection between the two. Their eyes both turned red with anger, yet while Yang's were fiery and bright, Adam's was darker. Dull. The difference between freshly-spilled blood and a stain, deep-seated and old.

It didn't bode well for what that 'secret' of his might've been. Yet, it left her curious, still: what had happened?

"... Are you coming, or do you plan on just sitting there?" In the time she was mulling that over, Adam was already leaning against the doorframe, having already grabbed her books.

Weiss huffed and crossed her arms. "I was thinking! Perhaps you should try it, some time."

Adam only rolled his eyes.


	9. Cardinal Sins

Two and a half months had passed, now, and no longer could Adam lie to himself: he was starting to see RWAY as his team, and its members as his partners... even if Ozpin had not seen them fit to remove CFVY's influence, just yet. What had started as a small reassurance towards Ruby to combat Weiss's whining about not being the leader had become genuine suggestions and bonding over the idea of leadership itself.

Yang might've been adamant in slipping out of more fights with him after her single victory, but she was still the one he found himself talking to the most, even if she was equally as insistent at teasing him. Especially about Velvet-related matters.

Even Weiss, the _Schnee_ , had become his primary sparring partner, and while it would be difficult to call them friends even without the sneaking suspicion both held contempt for what the other truly was, they were definitely closer than they were during initiation. Weiss had her grating moments—there was no doubt about that—but ever since they'd offered each other the olive branch, she'd become polite. Nice, even. She'd begun hanging out with Ruby more often, as well, and escaped Yang's watchful eye. Adam supposed that, to them, if even he could get along with Weiss, there must be _something_ redeemable about her.

Even if, after the two finally returned that night, Yang didn't let go of her personal theory that there was more than redeeming going on.

Yes, maybe he really was beginning to see RWAY as... friends.

"Pfft, I don't have a clue why _you_ thought you were going to win against him, Weiss. You take the bull by the horns, and it just might take you for a ride~" Hm, maybe 'acquaintances' was better.

"Weiss, watch! I can fit this whole strawberry up my nose!" Well, just saying that he cared for them was a step, wasn't it?

"Aw come on, it's a _good_ thing you didn't become the leader, Adam! We wouldn't have wanted all our plans to go _AWRY_ , right?"

...

He tolerated them.

* * *

 **Cardinal Sin  
**

* * *

In a strange way, Adam almost considered Ruby his student. Someone to protect while Yang wasn't around for her. A shy, clumsy girl two years younger than her peers at the _least_? Who fought the minimum amount of combat training battles and didn't show off? An outstandingly easy target for humans wanting to boost their pride by stomping on others.

Which was why the first thing that Adam noticed was that Ruby had started wearing her cloak even as part of her school uniform. He'd asked Yang about it on a whim, but she'd waved it off.

"It's fine," she had said, "I expected her to start wearing it eventually, anyway. She's had it since she was a kid! It's sorta like a... mobile security blanket." She chuckled. "Just don't tell Rubes I called it that."

A security blanket. He didn't know why, but he was not all that trusting in Yang's belief that it was just the stress of additional classes getting to her.

So, Adam decided to take matters into his own hands. His mind was very keen on reminding him of the absurdity of his situation: a former White Fang member following around this human, teenage student not for information or for an ambush, but to keep her safe. Two months had softened him to this extent. That was... substantially worrying, but it was a problem for later.

He crouched down atop one of the many long dormitories of Beacon, hand at his brow and eyes faintly glowing from the aura he channeled into them. Ruby was a sniper, and a smart one. Her even spotting a familiar face across a football field wouldn't have been entirely out of the picture... if she were focused. Instead, with her head down and her eyes locked to the books she carried in her hands, she was anything but. Ruby had no clue he was here. Adam knew his intuition was right: something was wrong.

From the smattering of students walking along the paths, a pack of four broke off, and any doubt Adam had was wiped clean from his mind. Team CRDL("Cardinal"). _Cardin._ Adam sneered as the leader clapped a hand on Ruby's shoulder and led her away from the main road while his teammates relieved her of her books. From this distance, trying to hear would be an exercise in futility even with his aura. All he could rely on were his eyes.

And they saw a situation just growing worse and worse. Cardin kept a tight arm around Ruby. Sweeping hand motion, feral grin. Signs of confidence. Ruby, on the other hand, looked like she was trying to look as small as possible. She fidgeted with her hands. Never met his gaze. Adam didn't understand: Ruby was surely stronger than that overgrown thug of a human. Not to mention that, considering her tale of how she got in here in the first place, she was no stranger to defending herself. She wasn't Velvet.

Even with the rest of CRDL lurking around her like a pack of hyenas, it answered nothing. Their team could crush them. Annihilate them. It would barely be a challenge for him alone: RWAY combined would pick them apart. So, what was it? What did Cardin have over Ruby? Blackmail? Threats against family? Threats against her reputation—

Cardin flicked out his Scroll and snapped it open in a fluid movement. Adam squinted, but even with his control over aura, he couldn't make out exactly what was on the device as Cardin made sure to waggle it in Ruby's face.

But, he could make out enough: humanoid figure, some form of large, pink clothing, reddish hair—oh. Oh, that explained plenty. Adam realized exactly who that was. Ruby. Worse, in something that he'd almost laughed at the moment he'd seen it: her giant, pink, Beowolf hoodie pajamas. The only thing that could probably beat Vomit Boy's onesie: Ruby's own. Supposedly, it was her favorite. At the time, he'd thought it comical. Dare he say it, adorable.

To a populace who already saw her as a child, however... even the military bases of the White Fang were petty, at times. He knew what a reputation hit like that could do, and how unreasonably long it could stick.

It certainly answered what Ruby was so afraid of.

His eyes aching, Adam stood, rubbed his temples and let his aura drop. Well, he had a handle of the situation. Now, what was he to do with it... making sure Cardin suffered for this was obvious, but Ruby's ability to be cowed so easily would need to change.

He just needed an opportunity.

* * *

"Aw, come ooon, Rubes, this is exactly what I meant when I wanted you to find another team! It'll be fun, I swear!" As Adam called Blake for... he couldn't even count how many times, now, just to check up and see if she made it to Menagerie safely, Adam found his attention locking onto the conversation on the beds above him. Namely, yet another attempt by Yang to get Ruby to socialize once in a while. The name of the game this time: hang out with her and her friends later that afternoon.

"No, no, I've... I've got leadership homework to do! Yep, super important stuff!" Ruby deflected and shoved her face into a textbook.

"You're just saying that because I wouldn't know if you're lying or not!"

"Uh... I plead the fifth!" Ruby cried and hid under her covers.

"Rubes, they're _my_ friends! You can trust them, too, you know. Don't make me come up there!" Yang hopped off of her bed with a mischievous grin.

"I'll be charging you for any hospital bills," Weiss calmly warned her from below the safety hazard that was Ruby's bed, flipping through her notes and actually trying to study for the test. By some miracle, she'd managed to become adapted to the chaotic life in RWAY's dorm. Adam scoffed as he snapped his Scroll shut. Nothing.

"More like funeral services," he corrected her with a smirk, ignoring his growing agitation about Blake.

Weiss just rolled her eyes and returned to her studies.

"It'll be great, sis, you need more friends, anyway!"

"I already have friends! Like—"

"Outside of RWAY?" Yang cut her off.

The blankets shifted as Ruby stuttered and tried to think something up. "JNPR?"

"You mean Jaune."

"Yeah... yeah, I mean Jaune." Ruby sighed in defeat.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Adam will just do your homework for you: I saw him helping you out, these past few days." The Schnee decided to simultaneously pour a little more gasoline on the fire and drag Adam into it.

He narrowed his eyes at her. "Assisting someone with their classes is not doing it _for_ them. Really, I have some expertise in that area and decided it would be better put to use helping Ruby than being forgotten. Besides, she's been getting a lot of it, lately. I've never heard of needing to write the same essay, only in conflicting viewpoints..." His eyes trailed up to Ruby.

"Yeah, what's been up with that, anyway?" Yang added with a narrowed gaze. "Is that class really that crazy? I think I saw you taking more notes than every other class we've got combined!"

Ruby poked her head out, eyes darting between the two. "Oh, well, uh, gotta stay in tip-top shape to be a leader, yep! That's why I have so much to do and—" Her eyes locked onto his, desperate for a way out. "Say, Adam, where'd you learn that stuff, anyway?" she asked just a little too loudly.

"Oh, that's _classified._ One of his _many_ secrets he has to keep so he can have that 'aura of mystique.' " The heiress mockingly wiggled her fingers as she answered for him, a smug smirk on her face that only grew as Adam fumed.

"Don't be upset because unlike you, I can't be read like an open book," he shot back. Weiss flicked her notebook aside as she leaned forward and prepared her own retort. The dual arguments raged on like a mighty storm, right up until Ruby decided to throw a low blow at Yang:

"Actually, uh, Adam said he'd grab some ice cream with me later, so I'm kinda booked anyway!" Adam had just pointed at Weiss, fully set to tear down her argument with a single well-placed snipe when overhearing that abruptly brought his finger up to Ruby. He never agreed nor even heard of this idea and was about to slap that down without mercy, until he noticed her pleading puppy eyes and tiny, adorable grin aimed right at him.

None of this was fair.

"That... that would be right. I completely forgot."

Still, this was exactly what he needed...

* * *

And that was how a twenty-one year old, brooding ex-terrorist cell leader ended up eating ice cream across from a giddy, fifteen year old Huntress-in-training. Ruby didn't even know how Adam could look grumpy eating a sundae, and _really_ didn't know how anyone could look grumpy _and_ pleased at the same time, but Adam was managing it. She'd settled with a strawberry milkshake, which Adam had grumbled something about 'not even being ice cream'. Halfway through Ruby's third milkshake and his only bowl of ice cream, Adam sighed and embedded his spoon into it.

"I'll admit it. That was a good plan." He held back a smile as Ruby smugly kicked back and slung an arm around the back of her chair, beaming with confidence. "That being said..." She blinked and leaned up again. "Yang's right."

Ruby groaned and slumped back into her chair. "Awww, she's gotten to you, too?!"

"And I know about Cardin."

She groaned louder and flopped forward, leaving her with her face planted on the table and her hood over her head. Her milkshake stood forgotten beside her. "I don't even know how he got the photo..."

Adam sighed. "You can't afford to be meek, Ruby. You are a _leader_ , now: someone who gives orders. Someone to be looked up to by your teammates and feared by your enemies... It's a little difficult to be feared if you can be ruled over by a single photo. That is the mark of a coward."

Ruby just grumbled something under her breath.

Adam hummed to himself. "I suppose you do look a little tired, right now. I can save this talk for later. Since you are clearly too tired for that milkshake, however..." By the time Ruby reached out to snatch it, Adam had brought it over to his side, just out of reach. Ruby was left glaring and pouting at him like a child. He supposed it was fitting for her age.

"Fine, fine, I'll—" She was at his side in a rush of rose petals, but Adam was expecting this, already holding it in his other hand and pushing her away with Wilt's sheath.

"Wrong answer. If you wish to drink this milkshake again, you will have to listen."

"And what stops me from just getting another one?"

"With what lien?"

Ruby patted herself down, then slumped her shoulders in defeat. She'd forgotten her wallet.

"Alright, fine, I give up... no need to take hostages..." She grumbled to herself before plopping back down in her chair and crossing her arms. Adam slowly set the shake down beside her, and just... stared at Ruby for a few moments. Just as she started to fidget in place and glance nervously at her drink, he cut right to the point.

"You're training to be a Huntress. You're too shy."

She crossed her arms. "Well, yeah, Captain Obvious." His hand drifted towards the milkshake and Ruby locked up. "Sorry!"

"You cannot allow yourself to be pushed around. _You_ need to be the one ordering Cardin to cease. Or forcing him to."

"Well, yeah, but what if I screw it up and just make more people bully—"

" **Enough.** You can't afford to be shy or worry about 'screwing it up'. You will need allies as a Huntress. Not many would want to partner with someone who cannot even talk to those she hasn't met before," he stated. This was something he knew Ruby would need to get over, and soon. One of the most selfish things he'd done was keep Blake to himself and himself only: it left the antisocial girl all but incapable of taking on leadership roles of her own. Blake was his partner. She would never be anything _but_ his partner... until she tried to leave.

"That's why I've got you guys and JNPR!" Ruby protested.

"Will you, really?"

Ruby nodded before he had even finished his question, determination in her eyes.

"Always?" Adam leaned forward.

His 'leader' deflated. "No..."

"And will you leave a village to die because you can't play the hero when they're all watching you? Judging you if you fail?" It was often that it wasn't that people wanted to allow oppression to continue, it was that they were too afraid of what happened if they failed in trying to stop it.

Ruby groaned and slumped down into her chair. "Of course not..."

"Then you're going to have to get over it. Soon. A coward for a team leader helps no one."

Ruby flinched, but she knew there was no malice or anger behind Adam's words. Just bluntness. It reminded her a lot of Yang, though she always toned it down whenever it came to her. She sighed and tugged her hood down over her eyes.

"You win."

Adam leaned forward and brought a hand to his ear. "I don't think I heard you."

"You win! I give up, I'll make Cardin stop and go hang out with Yang's friends, next time... but that doesn't mean I'll have to like it!" She crossed her arms and pouted once more: she was going to stick on that! Adam leaned back and smirked in victory.

"Fine. I still count that as another win to my flawless record."

"Didn't Yang beat you?"

"I was distracted, and that never happened," Adam replied in warning.

"I think the school records and that fist mark on your face for two days says otherwise." She tapped her chin. "I _also_ think the other students would, too."

"And I think you've forgotten who has the hostage." Though Ruby's eyes widened in shock and her arm reached across the table in naught but a second, it was already too late: Adam chugged the rest of the milkshake in an instant.

Utterly defeated, Ruby flopped down onto the table, fake tears gathering in her eyes. "He had so much to live for!"

For the first time in what felt like years, Adam had to hold back a genuine, lighthearted laugh.

Unfortunately, Ruby ended up with the last laugh upon realizing he had to pay in the first place, ordering three more milkshakes while he was flipping through his Scroll for any signs of Blake in Menagerie: she was the daughter of its ruler, after all, surely there would be something in the news. He had sighed and looked up only to find that she'd now had a shake of each size sitting next to the now-emptied one. Rose petals had found their way around it. Adam raised an eyebrow.

"... What? They're paying their respects!"

* * *

"... So, what do I do about Cardin, then?" Ruby asked as they walked through Beacon's grounds, the shattered moon shining high overhead.

Adam sipped the milkshake he'd claimed as repayment. "Simple. You march up and _force_ him to concede to you. Don't wait for him to come to you again."

Ruby knitted her brow in thought. "Wait, wouldn't he just throw out the picture anyway? You know, 'you've forgotten who has the hostage,' and all that?"

"Clever thinking. That's why you be _aggressive._ Storm up there and make it clear that there is nothing to question about you, only to _fear._ Cardin, like all oppressors, are cowards at heart. He'll back down, I know it. In other words, show him who's boss."

They walked in silence for a brief time, and Adam kept a close eye on Ruby during it. The faint hardening of her gaze, a shifting of the jaw... good, good, his words were sticking.

Finally, Ruby grinned and pumped her hand in the air. "Alright! This is the last day he's gonna have anything over me! But... uh, what if he just does something else, instead?"

Adam popped his neck and smirked, the glint in his eyes decidedly darker than that of just determination. "If Cardin continues being a pest, I'll just have to deal with him. _Personally._ "

"You aren't going to hurt him or anything, are you?"

He scoffed. "It is only what he deserves."

"But he hasn't done anything _that_ bad!" Ruby protested.

"Do you really think he's going to stop with you or Velvet? He'll only grow worse with time until his actions are far worse than this. It's in his nature. Better to kill a Beowolf while it is still a harmless pup rather than let it grow into an alpha." The relation to a Huntress' work was what really seemed to strike home with Ruby... as he expected it to. Her eyes widened with realization and, though she tensed and glanced away as her conscience no doubt tried to dissuade her, she finally nodded.

"Yeah... yeah, I think I get it."

Adam grinned and placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "I can assure you, Ruby. By this time tomorrow, everything is going to change for you."

* * *

As Ruby slammed her books down at Cardin's table during breakfast, Adam smirked and took a bite of his apple. Velvet may have had the slightest point about giving peace a chance with Weiss, but when it came to someone like Cardin, Adam wasn't going to simply sit by and let Ruby be pushed around. He'd be paying him a visit later, anyway...

"Geez, it took her long enough to stand up to him!" Yang muttered next to him, watching the show play out ahead of them. Nora, the only one of JNPR who had come for breakfast over a bit of early exercising(or sleeping, in Jaune's case), nodded sagely.

Adam turned. "You knew this entire time? Both of you?"

She chuckled. "Uh, duh? Come on, what kind of big sister would I be if I managed to miss something that obvious?"

"And you did nothing?" He was incredulous. She had practically just attacked him over just rebuffing Ruby's attempts at friendship!

"Well, I mean, she's gotta start doing stuff by herself some time, right?" Yang offered with a weak shrug, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself than him.

"What she means to say," piped up Weiss, "is that Yatsuhashi and I had to kindly remind her of how thin the ice we were on before she did anything rash. I was hoping that Ruby would have been beyond this, too..."

Yang gritted her teeth and turned to snap back at Weiss, but Adam's attention was drawn back to Ruby. Cardin stood tall above her now, sneering while the rest of his team were half-risen from their seats, crouched like animals waiting to strike.

"Like a little runt like you has any room to talk!" Cardin growled and shoved Ruby back. Yang's grip tightened on the table. Adam supposed keeping to her own word was something she had trouble with.

To her and Adam's surprise, however, Ruby managed to straighten herself out and stomped closer. "The 'little runt' who has a better combat record than you do!" She jabbed a finger at his chest. "... Oh! Better grades, too."

"That doesn't mean crap when you're Ozpin's little pet project!" His team snickered around her. "So you better watch who you're talking to. I don't care if you're his little lovechild or your pops donated, I'm gonna make you suffer. Starting with that little _thing_ we talked about, earlier." He snatched Ruby by her cloak and lifted her up.

"Hands off the cape!" She kicked her legs about, one kick catching Cardin in the stomach and leaving his grip to drop. As one, his team finally stood. Adam and Nora jumped up as well, only for Yang to grab onto his arm.

"Wait! Wait..." she grumbled through gritted teeth. Yang forced herself to continue, "Let her stand up for herself. Look." She glared down at CRDL. Rather than ganging up on Ruby as she and Cardin growled at one another, the rest of his team circled the two, their eyes locked not on the two leaders, but on them. "They're waiting for us to jump in. If they go at Ruby, we go in. But until then..."

Adam scoffed, snatched his arm away and sat back down. Nora, on the other hand, glanced between CRDL and Yang. She shifted her jaw before scowling—an expression Adam hadn't ever seen on the normally-cheery girl before—and sitting down as well, pouting.

"Your team, your rules," Nora grumbled under her breath, so quiet that Adam was the only one who heard it.

This brought along with it a keen observation: the cafeteria was eerily quiet, now, even for the smaller crowd that came with breakfast. Only hushed mumbles went through those gathered. Everyone was watching.

Ruby had noticed, as well... and even from where Adam sat, he could see her confidence shatter in an instant.

"Come on, brat! You're talking a big game, what are you gonna do!" Cardin gave Ruby another harsh shove, but this time it left her stumbling. Her eyes weren't focused on Cardin anymore, instead flickering around the cafeteria. Her response was mumbled quietly enough for it to barely carry over the excited mutters of the crowd, not even loud enough to be understandable.

Yang cursed under her breath.

Adam narrowed his eyes. Something was wrong. "What's happening?"

"Ruby... doesn't do well in crowds." Cardin's shouting had grown louder, and Adam found himself glancing between Yang and the growing situation. It was already getting out of hand. Ruby started to back away, any and all backbone she'd shown just moments prior missing. Like it'd never been there at all.

" _How?_ " the Schnee asked. "She's more of a show-off than him!" She motioned towards Adam, but Cardin stalking towards Ruby again brought his attention back to them.

"Tell you what, kid. Why don't you wrap yourself up in that little kiddy cape of yours and scurry off? You're in over your head." Cardin reached for her cape again, only for Ruby to slap his hand away.

"Just... j-just back off, alright?" She turned to leave. Perhaps Ruby didn't want to look like a coward, and did not activate her Semblance as she made to bolt back to her team.

That was a mistake.

Cardin slammed his foot down onto Ruby's cloak.

The sound of tearing fabric was all too clear in the nearly-silent cafeteria. Ruby crashed to the ground out of sight. Adam barely had time to look over before Yang was sprinting over to her sister's side, thoughts of leaving her to stand on her own abandoned. There was another shouting match between Cardin and Yang, now. Her eyes were blazing red as she led Ruby away. The younger sister was cradling her cape, a ragged tear scoring across its center, leaving it nearly in half.

Yang had shepherded Ruby out of the door before Adam or Weiss could even question them.

The sudden change when the room grew quiet was one thing, but that whirlwind of movement and noise only left one thing on Adam's mind.

"What the _hell_ just happened?"

* * *

The Schnee barged into their dorm room like a storm, Adam following close behind. "If someone would please be so kind as to explain—" The rest of what she wanted to say was muffled as Yang zipped over from Weiss' bed to the door and slapped a hand over her mouth.

As Yang all but bulldozed the two of them back out of the room, Adam put his superior height to use and just peered over their heads. Ruby sat despondent, clutching her cape on the Schnee's bed, curled up and staring down at that tear running clean through it. He narrowed his eyes. Certainly not for the first time in these past few days, he knew something wasn't right, here.

The door slammed shut, snapping Adam's attention back to the two girls in front of him.

Schnee was fuming and wiping at her lips. "Ugh, absolutely disgusting..." She shook her head. "Well, Yang? Plan on telling us what is happening?"

Yang sighed and leaned against the wall. "Look, her cape is... _really_ important to her. It's the last thing she got from... from our mom."

Adam's eyes widened: was _Ruby_ Raven's child, as well? Did she leave later than he thought? The way Yang was putting it, though, sounded far more like she was dead... and he severely doubted that was the case. Right?

"Why can't she just get it fixed?" The Schnee asked and almost instantly regretted it from Yang's glare down back at her. She stumbled on her next words before trying to make a save: "Look, I'm not saying it'll fix everything, but she's acting like it's the end of the world! It'll be like nothing happened at all."

Yang shook her head and rubbed her temples. "Yeah, well, it's not that easy. It's a _special_ cloak, Princess. It's made with aura infused into the thing, sorta like Adam's glowy clothes. It's why it gets all weird when she uses her Semblance like that. Same kinda thing. It's really expensive: you can't just... stitch it back up normally."

Adam's eyes widened, but mentioning lien practically had the Schnee's eyes sparkling. With a bounce in her heel and a proud puff of her chest, she crossed her arms. "Well, then, I'd be glad to pay for it, whatever the cost!" With her head held high, it was clear that what she was expecting was praise and maybe even tearful thanks.

... When that didn't come, she was left glancing around with unease. She cleared her throat. "I _said—_ "

"The reason it's expensive is because of its rarity," Adam interrupted. "Beyond sentimental value, much of what it is capable of in a pragmatic sense is better done with Dust. It's not something that took off well in the Dust-rich areas of Vale and Atlas. Mistral, Vacuo, that's where people knowledgeable enough to fix it are... but there isn't enough time to find one. Not with a tear like that probably leaking what little aura is left in it. These things are like circuits and hearts: they need to circulate the aura constantly, or it'll fade."

He gazed past Yang at the door. "You said it was the last thing from your mother. Are you saying..."

Yang nodded and gritted her teeth. "Yeah. It's last piece of her we have left... literally." Her eyes flared red. "And Cardin _destroyed it._ " She kicked off of the wall hard enough to crack the plaster. She didn't exactly care. Any shred of resistance towards putting Cardin in the ground was long gone.

"Yang," Adam started as she began to storm off.

Yang turned. Fiery-red glared into emerald-green.

Adam only nodded. He knew exactly what Yang was thinking. Without another word shared between them, Yang continued on. Adam followed behind her, hand clenched tight around his weapon. He was planning on paying Cardin a visit already, but this changed things. Adam didn't plan on _killing_ him, no, no, but were his blade to simply... slip through Cardin's aura and filet him like a fish, well, he wouldn't be missed.

Suddenly, the source of Ruby's devastation was so clear to see. As was the extent of Cardin's crime, known or not. He snarled, eyes fading from emerald to crimson with each step, Yang leading the way and leaving Weiss confused and alone.

"Where... what are you two planning to do?" Weiss called behind them, warning in her tone and worry in her gaze. More for herself than anything, Adam assumed.

When the two looked back, their eyes were both a matching pair of livid, hateful red.

"What does it look like?" Yang said.

"We're going to give Cardin what he deserves," Adam sneered.

Then, Weiss was alone. Her leader needed support in the room beside her. Her teammates needed her support to stop them from getting their entire team _expelled_ in the halls ahead. Sure, she was upset, too, but that didn't mean she was going to help them brutalize another student! Worse, it wasn't as if they'd ever listen.

She scoffed. "Unbelievable," she muttered under her breath and brought up her Scroll to the door's lock. It beeped, she grasped the handle... and paused.

Back in Atlas, Winter was the one who handled comfort when she was younger, not her. Her younger brother, Whitley, was always too prideful and petty to be helped by Winter, let alone herself, even after an attack on the Schnee manor itself. Heavens knew her parents were too busy snarling at one another or their work to try to help their children in time of need. All of this left Weiss with a sudden, keen realization of how she didn't have the slightest clue on what to do. She didn't even know where to start with Ruby.

The door locked once more.

There was nothing she could do. Frustration and the festering knowledge that this could very well be her last day at Beacon left her growling and stomping off in the other direction.

Maybe she could just pretend like this never happened.

At least, that's what Weiss thought until she rounded the corner and nearly ran into Coco and Fox.


	10. Soft

**Soft  
**

* * *

"How long until our first class?" Adam asked as if he were strolling through the quiet halls of Beacon, not slamming the armored, perpetually-squinting teammate of Cardin headfirst into a stone pillar on the outskirts of the campus. His aura shattered with a satisfying _crack._

Cardin wasn't stupid, at least. Getting a text from the not-so-unknown overprotective sister of Ruby asking to meet up and 'work things out between our teams' had just resulted in him bringing along a couple teammates as backup. One now laid crumpled and unconscious at the base of a cracked pillar.

"Pretty sure we've long missed that one." Yang chuckled and threw aside the second teammate behind her. A scrawny boy with a mohawk. Frankly, he never stood a chance.

Cardin was left to stand his ground on the lonesome road back to Beacon proper. Pillars old enough to have already begun cracking and crumbling from disuse rose along both sides. They were far enough for no one to be able to hear any signs of battle. Or Cardin.

His aura was already crackling and faltering.

His two opponents were still going strong.

Adam looked away from Cardin's fallen backup. "If it helps, she wasn't lying, Cardin." In a blur, he'd leaped forward and lodged his boot squarely in Cardin's gut. He stumbled back, but kept his ground.

Unfortunately for him, this was exactly what let Yang rush in, one hook striking his wrist hard enough to send his mace flying, the second crashing into his jaw with enough force to put the shreds of his aura left out of its misery. Cardin crumpled, yet he didn't hit the ground. Having gotten behind him faster than he could see, Adam now held Cardin up.

"We _are_ going to work out these issues our team's been having recently," Adam continued. Unlike his teammates, at least, Cardin could stay conscious after the shock of having his aura broken.

Yang patted Cardin down as he reeled until she found what she was looking for: his Scroll. She snorted. "No lock? Really?"

"Screw you—" An golden, aura-fueled punch into his stomach cut off Cardin's words with a roar of pain. His legs buckled, but Adam kept him standing.

"So, first off," Yang began as if that didn't just happen, "you aren't touching my little sister, alright? You don't talk to her. You don't look at her. You don't breathe her air," she recited. Adam had the faintest feeling this wasn't the first time she'd had to do this.

She made a couple faces of disdain or disgust as she skimmed through his photos, right until she found the one of Ruby she was looking for. Yang sighed and deleted it. "And if I ever even see you or one of your teammates near _our windows_ again, you're going to wish you'd never been born, alright?" She crushed the Scroll in her hand and tossed it over her shoulder.

"You're screwing with the wrong person, Xiao Long!" A sharp knee in the side from Adam made him reconsider. "Alright, alright, fine! I'll leave the brat alone! Just... let me go!"

Yang clicked her tongue. "Yeaaaaah, that's the _problem._ It's too late for that: you just happened to screw up something kinda important to her."

That took a couple seconds for Cardin to consider. "... Is... is this about that security blanket of a cloak she's been dragging around? Are you serious?" Infuriated by the seemingly arbitrary, asinine reason, Cardin had the nerve to struggle. Someone with a broken aura, however, stood no chance at actually budging someone who had a Huntsman-level understanding of it.

The punch to his other side didn't help.

"I didn't say to talk, punk! Ruby's cloak just happened to be a gift from someone really important to both of us... and _you_ ruined it. So, next time you look in the mirror, I want you to remember why you don't screw with my sis!" Yang pulled her fist back. Cardin flinched. Adam didn't budge.

It wasn't glamorous. It wasn't clean. It wasn't particularly honorable, either. Adam held Cardin up with his arms coiled up under his armpits, and Yang beat him like he was an overly dense punching bag. It was something he'd seen in dirty alleyways and gangs, between criminals and hoodlums. Brutal. Savage. Hateful.

But Cardin would never forget what happened this day, and that made it perfectly alright to Adam. Even if he had to ignore the pleading of his conscience carrying Blake's voice.

It was what he deserved.

A groan and shifting of armor was what broke up that unceremonious beating: the stronger of Cardin's teammates that he'd brought was rising. Yang rubbed her knuckles as she stepped back, eyes red, but anger satiated. Adam dropped Cardin like a sack of bricks, and he struck the ground about as hard as one.

"If anyone asks," Adam said as he rolled his shoulders, "you were attacked by a particularly fierce Ursa."

Yang waggled her hand in the universal 'meh' sign.

"Two Ursai," he corrected himself as Cardin groaned and slowly started to push himself up to his knees.

The blonde brawler glared down at him for a couple seconds, then snorted and smiled. It held little happiness. "Good talk, Cardin. I think we really worked out those issues! Here's to hoping we don't ever have to have this little chat again!" She raised her boot, content to leave him just as dazed or unconscious as his teammates.

 **"Enough."**

Yang froze, her foot lingering just above Cardin's head. Adam twisted to face the source of the voice, hand already reaching for the hilt of his blade.

Yatsuhashi stood at the treeline, arms crossed and a stern gaze leveled at the two assailants. At his side stood Velvet, turned away and typing away at her Scroll, eyes refusing to meet their own.

"You two have done _enough,_ " the giant repeated.

Yang slowly backed up from Cardin, allowing him to get up and try to stumble away with his wounded team. Both Yang and Adam held too much pride to let the concern show on their faces. The former, however, only crossed her arms without saying a word, as if daring Yatsuhashi to do anything about what was already done.

"I suppose he's learned his lesson," Adam said.

Velvet snapped her Scroll shut hard enough for them all to hear a faint crack. " 'Learned his lesson'?" She whirled around to finally stare them down, eyes wide and just as incredulous as they were angry. "Is that seriously all you have to say for yourselves about this? You assaulted another student—no! You beat him! Like he was a wild animal and not a person! Have you both lost your minds?!" Velvet shouted.

"Look, lady, he crossed a line!" Yang snarled, eyes having not faded from red since she began her assault.

"A line he didn't even _know_ about!"

"He knew enough," Adam interrupted. "Even so, it was the risk he took when he decided to harass Ruby. We're supposed to start sticking together, after all." A slim, vicious smirk spread across his face. "We're just protecting our team leader."

"What you're _doing_ is using it as an excuse to harm and hurt other people."

Yang just raised an eyebrow, her scowl now just a condescending smile. That seemed to be the last straw for Velvet, who threw her arms up in frustration. "Ugh, just... forget it! I don't understand why you're both looking so smug about this, because you're both going to wind up out of Beacon. If you ask me, people like you should best be in prison, not _here._ "

While Adam remained unfazed, Yang's glare down at Velvet held nothing but contempt. Velvet managed to match it back at them, any anger she lacked instead replaced by plenty of frustration and offense.

But it was Yatsuhashi who broke the silence with a heavy sigh and the first words he'd spoken since Velvet started yelling: "They're not in trouble."

Another period of silence, but of an entirely different feeling. Yang was staring at Yatsuhashi in absolute surprise, shocked to the point of her eyes regaining their normal, amethyst coloring. Even Adam raised his brow, sensing a catch, but still caught off-guard. Were he not still going over those words in his head, however, Adam was rather certain that he would have been laughing at Velvet. If they were shocked, she looked like her entire world had been flipped upside-down: mouth agape, rage shattered entirely, and ears flopped down to the sides of her face, she looked positively cartoonish.

Velvet managed to find her voice.

 _"WHAT?!"_

* * *

"Yeah, no, you're not in trouble," Coco repeated to Weiss. "We even got you out of your classes for today. You're welcome, by the way."

Weiss sighed in relief and leaned against the wall next to Coco, resisting the urge to just slide down it altogether. With Fox checking up on Ruby, it had just left the two heiresses outside RWAY's dorm. "Did... did you catch them before they got to Cardin?"

"Hm?" Coco glanced up from her Velvet's brief, rather angry description of what had happened. "Oh, no, they _ruined_ him. Two of his teammates, too." She looked back down at her Scroll as Weiss twisted to look at her.

Seeing no reaction other than the slight frown that Coco kept ever since she explained what was going on, Weiss crossed her arms and huffed. "This is very serious, you know: it's nothing to joke about!"

"I'm not joking, princess. They beat Cardin to a pulp, and we're not telling Ozpin a word."

"You can't... but they..." Weiss stumbled over her words before she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and cooled off. "Alright. Why?"

"Partially because he kinda had it coming. Partially because he'd been pulling that kind of stuff with Velvet and she really isn't as good at hiding it as she thinks she is. Mostly, though, it's because it's a step in the right direction. Obviously, it goes without saying to _never do this again_ , but you're at least all coming together over something." Her gaze once more found Weiss, and as Coco looked her over, she got the strangest feeling that she wasn't too happy about something. "Most of you, anyway."

Weiss crinkled her nose in agitation. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Coco sighed, closed her Scroll and kicked off of the wall she was leaning on. "What I'm saying, Weiss, is that I'm pretty disappointed in you."

It took a couple seconds for those words to truly click with Weiss, leaving her staring at Coco with a growing mix of confusion until, all at once, her frustration burst forward. "... No. No! That's not even fair! I did _nothing,_ here!"

"Yep. That's kinda the problem. You didn't even try."

Weiss balled her hands into fists, her cheeks red with growing rage. This was outrageous: those two brutes were going to get all but a slap on the wrist, but _she_ was going to get the lecture? She didn't care whether or not Coco Adel was a fashion heiress or that she was two years her elder, she was going to give that woman a piece of her mind! She opened her mouth to speak—or, more likely, shout.

Coco put a finger to Weiss' lips. "Hey, hey, hey, before you sound off, let me explain, alright?"

She stared at Coco in a mix of indigence and offense, but settled down, all the same.

"Leader, partner, teammate, whatever: your job first and foremost is always to stick with them, no matter what. You had three choices there: keep your leader some company, stop the dynamic duo over there from screwing everything up... or helping them."

The younger heiress' nose crinkled again. "And just why would I ever _help_ them? If anything, I should've informed the proper authorities immediately!"

"They're your _team,_ kid. Unless they're doing something really crazy, you've gotta stick with them, not rat them out." Coco peered over her sunglasses at Weiss, then the door to their dorm. "At least help them."

Weiss looked away, her cheeks growing pink with embarrassment. Coco had her there. Whatever clumsy reassurance she could've given to Ruby would've probably been better than nothing. She was starting to get a feel for Ruby, anyway: her just showing up probably would've lifted her spirits. Heavens knew why she was latching onto her that much.

"When it comes down to it, if someone on your team goes out and does something reckless—even if they're obviously asking for what's coming to them—you either stop them or help bail them out. Chances are, whatever it is they're doing? Gonna be a lot easier and a lot less deadly with the rest of the team on their side. It's ride or die, Weiss."

Weiss blinked owlishly. "... 'Ride or die'?" she sounded out.

Coco sighed. "Nevermind. Look, point is: doing nothing's about the worst thing you can do. When you're fighting as a team, even if someone screws up, are you going to really sit there and let the enemy take them down? Even if it's a really _dumb_ screw up?"

"Of course not!"

"Well, there you go. It's not too different from that: you just chew them out _after_ the fact. It probably doesn't feel like it now, but come a year or two down the line, that team of yours is going to feel like family. There's nothing worse than having that, and then feeling like you did nothing when you lose someone. Trust me." Coco's Scroll vibrated, and with a sigh she opened and flicked to it.

"Oh, good, another update from Velvet." She scrolled down... and scrolled... and scrolled. "... Oooh boy."

Weiss slipped over to her side to peer at what looked like a veritable wall of text.

"Looks like Velvet got the news about us not throwing you to the hounds."

* * *

Velvet didn't stand through even half of Yatsuhashi's explanation before she stormed off, leaving Yang, Adam and her partner in the dust. Normally, something like that wouldn't have bothered Adam. Yet, the look she gave the two, not even a glare as much as just a glance full of disgust... it was more of a barb than he wanted to admit.

Adam sighed and glanced to Yang. "I'll make sure she isn't just going to grab the nearest authority." It was, frankly, a pathetic excuse: there was no way that she wasn't told about what possibly was going to happen, Coco clearly ran a tight ship and if Velvet didn't tell anyone beforehand, she likely wasn't going to snitch now. But he wasn't going to stay long enough to have that picked apart. Adam jogged off in pursuit of Velvet.

For all of her anger and speed, she hadn't gotten particularly far from them. Velvet was barely in Beacon proper, instead curled up just under a bridge near the third year dorms, typing away at her Scroll. With a river rushing below and the bridge blocking most sight, Adam wouldn't have even noticed her were it not for her ear just barely drooping out from behind her secluded hiding spot.

Velvet made no attempt to move as he got closer. It wasn't as though he hid his footsteps on the grass approaching her, and Velvet's ear even twitched as he approached, but she didn't move. Didn't even look up.

"Velvet," Adam said. Perhaps she was just too absorbed in whatever she was typing.

She looked up at him, then back to her Scroll without a word. The disdain in her eyes had remained, joined only by frustration. The barb managed to press deeper.

"This is not nearly as bad as you're making it out to be."

No response. The barb sank deeper.

"This wasn't about stopping him from attacking others. It was for Ruby's sake."

No response. The barbs multiplied.

Adam sneered. "It was what Cardin deserved, in the first place. Did you expect me to take no action while she got hurt?"

Velvet was on her feet and in his face in an instant. "It's not about what anyone deserves! We're not animals, Adam: we can't just solve our problems with violence. You didn't stand up for her at all: you abandoned Ruby just to serve your own needs!"

"Foolishness! I gave her the strength to get Cardin off of her!"

"Wrong." She jabbed his chest. "You sent her off at him like an attack dog and, guess what? The situation _escalated._ When coincidentally no one ever mentions a word of him getting attacked and no teachers or guards so much as glance in your direction, do you think that's somehow going to make him think that he shouldn't just find another target, instead?" When Adam said nothing, Velvet stomped past him up the riverbank and back towards the bridge. "It's not like you'd listen, anyway. We've been over this. You've gotten what you wanted," she said with a voice bearing only a weary acceptance of it.

And that was the last straw. Adam clenched his fist. "Well what would you do, then? Lay there and take it?!" he shouted. "How do you manage to act so above it all? How can you just take their hate without so much as glaring in their direction when you've got all the power in the world to do more!"

Velvet glanced back. "See? I already told you why I don't strike back."

"No." Adam stalked back towards her. "Not _why._ _How._ "

She blinked, brow raised in thought and surprise both. Briefly torn between just leaving and staying to talk, her eyes darted from him to the bridge before she sighed and crossed her arms. "It's because... well, I've seen what happens when you go down that path. It's just not worth it. I was..." One of her ears drooped down. "I was born in Menagerie. Not the mainland, though: one of the colonies all the way on Anima. Its name was Hopeloa. At first, everything was great: we were too far from Mistral's border to encounter too many humans, there were mountains to the north and shallow seas to the south... it was a lot like a little Vale, actually.

"And then we struck gold. Gold and Dust, anyway. Too much for one town to take over. So, humans came flooding in all the way down to where we were, setting up shop left and right, and Mistrali human were never too happy about the faunus ever leaving Menagerie in the first place, let alone colonists. They wanted a big, unfair cut of all the resources and land. We refused—I mean, who wouldn't? At the time, we had the White Fang to protect us... and they did!"

Velvet turned to face him, and for just a moment, Adam could see the spark in her eyes. The fire of the oppressed wanting their rightful place in the world, struggling yet shining bright. "They healed our sick, built houses, kept out the raiders and bandits and Grimm, everything! But then..." That fire flickered and died out. "Then they started getting angrier. Crueler. They stopped defending us, and went out to 'directly' fix the problem by raiding the other villages back."

She squeezed her arms tighter to her chest. "They kept it small enough where no one outside really knew, but it was a war. Mistral brought bigger and bigger armies to respond, and the White Fang just kept stretching out further and further in their attacks. A human settlement raided became one destroyed, became a fort ransacked, became raids on Mistral's borders. They got so focused on Mistral for attacking us that they forgot about those raiders and bandits and Grimm. They might've been winning, even, but it didn't matter: one day, while they were so busy attacking the 'threats to our town', a wave of bandits came by... then Grimm... and that was it. The town was gone. Just like that.

"My parents and I were some of the few survivors, and we had to go back to the continent. I don't even know if the White Fang cared enough to notice. Do you get it, Adam? What's the point of even going off and attacking all those threats if you just abandon what you're defending in the first place?"

Adam ignored the sick feeling in his gut and looked away.

"It would've been better if they'd just stayed there to protect us. The town next to ours... well, they took that first deal. They're around. Hopeloa isn't. Maybe being like them is better than being Hopeloa. At least you survive."

An awkward silence settled between them. Adam's question was answered in spades, and it wasn't leaving him with much he could truly say in response. Slowly but surely, though, one thing pushed its way to the forefront of his mind.

"Menagerie has no allies... but you have your team. They don't look like the type that'd sit by and watch this kind of thing happen for three years. Why haven't they tried to help you?"

Velvet shifted her jaw, and now it was her turn to find her surroundings so interesting. "Well..."

* * *

"If this were two years ago, I would have crushed Cardin like an aluminum can," Yatsuhashi stated as simply as if saying the sun would rise the next day. Yang had expected some kind of stern lecture or to stew in uncomfortable, guilty silence like he was her dad or something on the way back to Beacon. Instead, he'd been quiet, leaving it just at a 'never do this again'. It was Yang who had cracked and asked how they could just let Velvet get bullied.

Yang blinked. "Wait, really? You? The peaceful giant?"

A rumbling chuckle came from the massive warrior. "I wasn't always that way. I'm the record holder for most freshman fights. On and off the arena."

Her jaw dropped. "You're lying."

"Not at all. It was only after my partner happened to help me out that I realized that, instead of rushing in headstrong, I should sit back. Meditate. Think. I heard about what had happened in the cafeteria: you did well, there. The aftermath, though, needed work."

"If you knew what happened there, then you would've known how important—"

Yatsuhashi held a hand up. "I was the one who suggested we cover for you. I understand. But take this from my experience: it's best to approach with a cooler head."

Yang took a moment to think about it, then sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Alright, alright, one more try. Call me curious, though: how'd Velvet get you to calm down like that? Or was it Fox?"

Yatsuhashi stopped.

* * *

With Fox slipping out of Ruby's room and rocking his hand in the universal 'so-so' sign, Coco took that as her time to leave.

"Well, guess that means it's up to you now, kid." With a big smile, she threw an arm around Weiss' shoulder and thumbed off towards the door. "You're her teammate, you'll be fine. Just head in there and... I don't know, does what comes naturally!"

Weiss forced out a chuckle and slipped from Coco's arm. "I... I will certainly try?"

"Pssh, trying's for losers. You just go in there and _do_ it. You'll be fine, I promise! But before I leave," Coco peered down at the shorter heiress over her glasses, her smile disappearing, "seriously, Weiss, it's better to keep close to your team. You never know just how long you're gonna have them around." Grinning, she crossed her arms just as Fox left back for their own dorms.

"Still you might all be a little rough around the edges, but by the end of whatever Oz has planned, you guys will be the next CFYN, trust me!" A sharp inhale from Fox was the only sign something was off.

Weiss had just knitted her brow and begun to speak, when Coco waved it off with a chuckle sounding just a hint too controlled. "CFVY, my bad. Slip of the tongue, old habit."

"Team... 'Caffeine'?"

"It's nothing, really. Just remember what I said, alright, Ice Queen?" With a whistle for Fox to follow, she strode down the hall, around a corner and out of sight. Controlled, quick step and a smile just a little too wide: if Weiss hadn't been to her fair share of banquets and dances, she almost might've thought she was genuine. Still, a Team 'Caffeine'...

Weiss pursed her lips as it hit her, and she looked back to where Coco had rushed away from. Suddenly, her advice became all the more poignant.

* * *

"I'm kind of new here, actually," Velvet admitted. "I'm replacing one of Team CFVN's members, Nel Ciel, after she... passed away on a training mission." With a helpless shrug and shift of her ears, she looked off towards Beacon.

"I don't even bother telling them: I don't want to just make myself a burden right after I got here, let alone drag them into my problems." As Adam mulled that over, her Scroll buzzed, and she flicked it open to check what alerted her.

"Oh! I need to get to the next class! I'll see you in the afternoon, Adam!" She took off up the hill and across the bridge, her anger seemingly having gone with the wind.

She leaned over the railing. "I'm still mad at you, by the way!"

Or not.

Though Adam managed a smirk and roll of his eyes, his walk back to Beacon proper was a silent one. His hands in his pockets, eyes watching the ground, weapon stowed under his arm and his mind turning over what Velvet had said.

He had plenty to think about.

* * *

Weiss took a deep breath. "Ruby, I can understand the kind of pain that you are going through, and as your loyal teammate, I simply wish to inform you that if you require anyone to talk to, I shall hold no qualms with conversing with you. After all, we are friends, correct?" Yes, there we are! Perfect!

She scanned over her written proclamation one more time, safe and assured that her fourth revision really helped make it more personal. And she thought having no experience would stop her, ha! All she needed to do now was... actually tell Ruby. Which meant she'd have to unlock the door and walk in. Where Ruby would be there, probably sad or crying or distraught.

Weiss gulped. She went over it! Her revision was perfect, after all! It'd definitely help put her in a better mood to know she was there. She raised her Scroll to the door, unlocked it, and reached for the handle.

"What are you doing?" Adam asked from only a foot behind her.

With a yelp of shock, Weiss tried to jump forward and away from him, only to open the door and tumble right through it face-first to the floor. Cheeks red with rage and embarrassment, Weiss pushed herself up onto her knees and glared over her shoulder at Adam. Seeing the self-satisfied, smug smirk on his face nearly had her jumping up to give him a stern lecture about personal space and sneaking up on people, but a quiet snickering from the corner of the room reminded her just why she'd come here in the first place.

"Uh, are you okay, down there?" Ruby managed through giggles, sitting with her knees to her chest atop her bed. Even from here, Weiss could see the faint redness still in her eyes. Her cloak laid folded in her lap.

Her mouth opened and closed for a bit as she tried to form a response. That must've looked even sillier to Ruby, for stifled giggles turned to laughter. Even Adam masked a chuckle behind a cough.

"You know, I'm beginning to grow a little concerned with half of the laughs of this team coming at my expense," Weiss said with a huff and roll of her eyes as she stood up. She'd just brushed herself off when Yang barged in clean past both her and Adam, disregarding their noises of complaint.

"Hey, I've got a brilliant idea! _Technically_ , CFVY got us out of our classes today because of a supposed sickness that has Ruby down and we're taking care of her... but instead of just moping around here, why don't we hit up the arcade, instead!" Yang called up to Ruby and, for a moment, her eyes lit up. Just as swiftly though, it faded, and she glanced away.

"Oh, it's fine, guys, really! I wouldn't want to drag the mood down, or anything..." Ruby tried to wave it off with a forced smile.

"You'd do nothing of the sort!" Weiss protested. "In fact, I think I would not mind coming along with you both," she added with a confident smile and crossed arms.

Ruby gasped and leaned forward, any former qualms gone in a flash. "You would?! You turned us down like, the last three times!"

"What can I say, I've had a change of heart." Her attempts to remain cool and collected were squandered when a sudden breeze whipped through the room and Weiss suddenly found herself with Ruby latched onto her.

"Ooooh, I'm gonna show you all the cool games, I promise!"

Weiss let out an awkward chuckle and tried to wriggle away, but her brave attempts were, ultimately, futile. She bit back the urge to tell Ruby to stop: she might've just gotten... really cuddly when recovering. "I... hope so?"

 _Click_

That didn't stop her from glaring over Ruby's shoulder at Yang snapping a picture of her.

"What about you, Adam? Are you coming with, too? Or are you too _cool_ for games?" Yang taunted with a playful smirk.

Adam shook his head and took a seat on his bed. "I've got a lot to think about. I'll call if I change my mind, though." A faint, tired smile assured them he was telling the truth.

"You're no fun, you know that?" Yang jabbed, but there was no true malice behind it. "Come on, Rubes! Before Ice Queen here changes her mind."

Giggling at Weiss' huff, Ruby turned back to look at her bed. "Let me..." Her smile wavered. "Let me hang the cloak up, first." She was quick about it: a little hop to grab the cape, then she was over to their closet in a rush of rose petals. She muttered something beneath her breath, carefully slipped her cloak onto a hook, and trio were gone before Adam could say much else. Off to have their fun.

With Ruby gone, he could let his false smile drop. The two girls hadn't heard Ruby, but he had.

 _"Sorry, Mom... see you later."_

The last gift from her mother. The last scrap of her, all but destroyed by Cardin. If he focused enough, he could see where the very edges of the tear glowed a faint white, only visible due to the shade of the closet.

Adam clenched his fist. Even those remnants of fury left the red along his outfit glowing a dim red, coursing with his aura. He let that anger fade. He wouldn't lie back and simply allow this, but aggression, perhaps, wasn't the answer.

Reaching back with his foot, he hooked the travel bag he'd originally brought with him and dragged it out. He rifled through it until he found his secret stash of Lien procured from questionable means. It wasn't much... but it was enough for what he'd need. He had lien, a needle and anywhere between two and eight hours, depending on how seriously they were taking this 'arcade' day.

He knew what he had to do.

* * *

In the end, as he closed the door to the closet, he decided he'd join the girls after all. It had barely taken any time at all.

* * *

Adam awoke the next morning to a scream. He allowed himself an uncharacteristic smile as he heard the room erupting into chaos and confused shouts, then promptly wiped it from his face and sat up with a scowl.

"And just what are you all shouting about?" he growled. "It's the crack of dawn!"

Ruby was bouncing in place in the middle of the room, zipping to and fro so quickly that it was hard to make out much of anything at all amidst the rose petals. "Well-I-wanted-to-check-on-my-cape-before-it-was-really-broken-and-empty-or-something-but-then-I-opened-the-closet-and-it-was-just-lying-on-the-floor-so-I-picked-it-up-and-look!" Before Adam could even figure out half of what her rapid-fire speech was meant to be, Ruby had shoved her cloak in his face.

Her perfectly whole cloak. The massive tear had been turned to merely a red 'scar' stitched across it. One so hard to see that you really wouldn't spot it on first glance. Not unless you were already looking, anyway.

Adam blinked and wiped at an eye, leaning in for a closer look, but Ruby was already gone again, having scrambled up the bunk bed to show Yang. Soon, even she was excitedly chattering with her.

Weiss, however, the last to rise, pulled out her earplugs and seemed rather... skeptical. She watched the two sisters with a curious smile, but the faintest knit of her brow and narrow of her eyes gave away her true thoughts.

"How exactly did that happen?" She affixed her stare on Adam.

He, however, only shrugged. "I was with you three almost the entire time. Besides, auraweaving takes far more time than what I would have had here, even if I did just have some spare sewing equipment just lying around." Sometimes, the best thing about knowing the most of a subject was that you could lie through your teeth about it, and it'd simply be accepted.

Even so, Weiss didn't look convinced. "So it stitched itself back together?"

Adam waved it off. "Aura from particularly strong users _has_ been reported to be able to repair the clothing even without the user's assistance." Of course, that was for scratches and minor holes, not massive tears like that one.

The Schnee tossed her long hair aside and was ready to continue her little interrogation when Yang hopped down from her bunk, a wild grin on her face.

"Who cares! It's called 'not looking a gift horse in the mouth', Weiss: I'm not questioning anything here... and also, I'm way too awake to go back to sleep, now. Come on, Rubes, let's see if it's too early for breakfast!" The two zipped past them to quickly throw something on over their pajamas, leaving only Weiss and Adam alone.

Adam expected the Schnee to revive the little argument but, instead, she smiled. "I can still see the spool of thread under your bed."

He could mask his slight gasp, but not the widening of his eyes. It was only a split-second later that he recalled he'd thrown the spool into his bag after he was done. A split-second too late. She'd noticed. She'd tricked him.

Weiss' smile grew wider and all the more knowing. "Just as I thought."

 _"You're just a big softie, inside."_


	11. Strength

**Strength**

* * *

Two days had passed since their little incident with Cardin, and it was as if it had never happened. Classes went on, Weiss didn't mention the truth about Ruby's cape, Cardin wouldn't so much as look at Team RWBY, and Velvet had even started talking openly with him again. All in all, life was good... all except for one thing.

Not a single message from Blake.

Were he not at lunch, Adam would have thrown his blasted Scroll. Maybe there was something wrong with it: he hadn't attempted to connect to anyone beyond Beacon's borders and personal network, so perhaps that was the issue? No, he'd overheard Yang and Ruby talking about texts and calls from their father, before. It couldn't be that. It'd been months! _Months_ without a word.

Could she have simply... died? Lost at sea or at land from Grimm? Adam thrust those thoughts from his mind and, daring not to spend a single second longer on them or the thought of being left alone, snapped his Scroll shut.

At least his internal struggle was not noticed: the three girls were busy chatting with Nora and Pyrrha. From what he could gather, their 'leader', Jaune, had started vanishing throughout the day. From the similarities to Ruby's own problem, there were more than a few suspicions that it was that rat, Cardin. Wounded and furious, it seemed he hadn't ceased his bullying. Instead, he simply found an even weaker target with more passive friends.

And so the cycle went on. Velvet may have been right, after all.

Adam sighed and went back to his meal.

His mind was so focused on Velvet and Blake both that he didn't notice Nora pointing into the air until it was too late. Adam's eyes flicked up only soon enough to see Jaune sail that last foot through the air and crash into their table hard enough to flip it over, sending food and drink scattering across both Jaune and the two unfortunate enough to be on the other side of the table.

Those two were Adam and Yang.

Adam was satisfied, at least, when Cardin strolled up to the carnage only to briefly stumble when he felt the cold fury coming from the other side of the table. Was Velvet potentially correct about perpetuating a cycle of hatred? Perhaps. Was that going to stop him from flaying Cardin alive? Oh, most certainly not.

He had just begun to stand when, to his surprise, it was Ruby who slid between Cardin and Jaune. Though the cafeteria was full of noise from excited mutters to conversation to the rest of Jaune's team checking him over, not a word was shared between Ruby and Cardin. Ruby did not advance, only standing tall in her silent defense of Jaune. Cardin's eyes bounced from her to the two who had beat him across the table, then fell back down to Jaune. He took a step back, but when his eyes caught sight of the crowd, he stopped.

Now, it was his reputation on the line. Like a cornered animal, he bared his teeth and clenched his fist.

Ruby stood her ground. "Leave him alone," she said. Like pulling the pin from a grenade, Cardin's desperate rage spiked. His aura rose, as did his hand.

"It's been rather lively in here, as of late, wouldn't you think?" That was a voice that froze almost every student in their tracks. Professor Goodwitch marched through the cafeteria and right towards their group, an absolutely murderous intent behind her gaze. Ruby was left waving her hands and speaking rapid-fire to try and get herself as far from the situation as possible, but Cardin did his best to stare Goodwitch down... without actually trying to be obvious doing so, of course.

Goodwitch's eyes scanned over the two of them. A snap of her riding crop silenced Ruby with a squeak. "I see that you've become quite fond of the power Huntresses and Huntsmen hold. So too, however, do they have responsibilities, such as knowing _when_ and _**where**_ to use it." With barely a twitch of her crop, the table and remains of their lunches pulled themselves upright and whole.

Weiss calmly pushed her plate away from her.

"This isn't the first time I have seen trouble surrounding you, Mister Winchester." Goodwitch glared down the taller boy, leaving him forcing a nervous excuse for a cocky smile. "But... since this is Miss Rose's first offense, I will make this a learning experience."

Ruby blinked and raised a hand, ready to mention how she hadn't even done anything... but a mere glance from the steely-eyed professor left her quiet again.

"If you two are so secure in your abilities..." Goodwitch smiled a cold, terrible smile.

* * *

Oh no, no, no, no, this isn't what she wanted at all! Ruby squirmed and looked around the stands of the arena she now stood in. It was Saturday! No one had classes, which meant that when Professor Goodwitch announced a _special sparring match between her and Cardin_ , it wasn't just half the cafeteria showing up to watch the bloodbath, it was about three periods' worth of students! The place was more packed than it had ever been, and Ruby was right in the middle of it, trembling like a small dog.

Standing tall in his full armor, Cardin was saying something to her, but Ruby couldn't even hear it over the chatter coming from every direction. This was one of the biggest crowds she'd ever seen! She couldn't perform like this! That was a titanium-bladed heavy mace with a focused red Dust core amplifying each impact, even a non-mechashifting weapon like that could knock her out in one blow!

"Oi!" Cardin shouted at her. How come she had to fight when Jaune was getting thrown around? Was he even in the audience? Oh no, Cardin was glaring at her really intensely, she might lose and then she'd never be able to show her face in the Academy! It'd be even worse than if the pictures got out! _Oh no,_ what if he released _that_ too?!

"Hey!" Oooh, she just wanted to go to her room, she wanted to watch cute videos about puppies and kittens and that one silly husky that sounded like it was talking—

"I can hear you!" Cardin shouted over the roar of the audience. Ruby locked up: was she saying all of that? Her eyes darted nervously about the crowd for any tells, but they were far away and it was dark and she couldn't see anything and what if they were laughing at her and—

"I didn't think it'd be that bad," Weiss muttered in a shocked daze at just how far gone Ruby was.

Adam laid back in his seat, rubbing his temples. "This is going to be a disaster."

Yang had other thoughts: "Come on, Ruby! Put him in the dirt! Knock him out in one hit, you can do it! Ruby! Ruby! Ruby!" With Yang's natural charisma, it was no challenge at all to have half of the arena cheering her name, even if the other half started up a call for Cardin. The calls had reached their peak when the lights around the stands cut out and the buzzer rang.

Showtime.

Cardin leaped forward with explosive force, but he was magnitudes slower than Ruby: in a rush of rose petals, she was gone. Rather than attack, though, she hid at the edge of the arena, trying to block out the crowd by peering down her scope and firing at her foe. She might not have been able to see their faces, but she could see the blue lights of Scrolls and blinking reds of recording. This is why she didn't even like mock battles! She'd just pick someone mediocre and hide until it was her turn!

"Really? You're just gonna run away!" Each shot was slammed away by Cardin's heavy mace as he strode towards her. A walk turned to a jog to a sprint as he rushed Ruby yet again.

"N-no! It's being tactical!" Ruby tried to shout as she ducked beneath a swing and forced herself to stand her ground. Cardin's slow blows were heavy enough to throw up plumes of dust and fire with every strike, but not a single one could catch Ruby with little more than the shockwave. Even so, none of his blows were countered. For all the flair and twirls of Ruby's scythe, not once was its deadly blade aimed at him.

* * *

As Ruby abruptly shifted her stance and shoved Cardin back with a wide, almost clumsy—but certainly still dangerous—swing of her scythe, Weiss knitted her brow. "What is she _doing_ down there?" she asked, her voice barely audible to Aadam under Yang's cheering.

Adam frowned. Ruby parried a swing with a spin of her scythe, sending Cardin stumbling back. He could see her eyes searching him over. Her gaze paused at his legs for a fraction of a second. Cardin's stance was poor and unstable... yet Ruby did not capitalize, instead firing her rifle to keep him off balance. A sweep of his legs could've ended the match before it began. He knew it. Ruby knew it.

He narrowed his eyes.

"She's hesitating."

* * *

Ruby jumped back from a ball of flame, only to squeak when she bumped into the cold metal wall of the arena. There was nowhere else to go, now. Nowhere to run. Cardin looked amused as he stalked forward: dodging would just get her walloped by the shockwaves and he knew it. Unfortunately, so did she. Ruby gulped.

"You know, I don't even know why you were so mad in the first place. I just saw how bad Jaune screwed up in initiation!" Cardin made yet another unsuccessful strike, but it was one that forced Ruby to swipe it away with Crescent Rose. "I wanted to help him with his landing strategies!"

A flip of a switch and her scythe's blade flipped up, pointing out at Cardin as a true polearm. With the range and speed advantage, Cardin couldn't get close. Every slash and stab got her a couple inches more away from the wall. But it wasn't enough: Cardin wasn't just an average freshman, she couldn't chip him down like she could half of the people in her class. He had just as much strength and just as much aura... which meant she'd have to take risks eventually.

More chances to screw it up, right in front her team and _everyone else_ too! Her eyes flicked over towards the dark stands, right where she knew her team was watching her.

"Why don't ya give him an example!" Her attention was snatched back to the fight just in time for her to roll out of the way of a wave of flame.

Right into the path of Cardin's next swing upwards.

The world churned and blurred as Ruby flew up to within feet of the ceiling. She caught glimpses of herself, aura flaring from the strain of a direct hit to the face. Her ears rang, yet she could still hear the shouts and roar of the crowd. This sucked. This really sucked. Her team was probably just embarrassed about her, right now.

"Come on, Ruby, is that cape for show!" Weiss' voice called out as she dropped back down. Here comes the insults. "You're our leader! You're better than this!"

Huh? The surprise shocked Ruby out of her funk just long enough for her to see Cardin readying to bat her clear into the stands. A shot from Crescent Rose sent her flying off to the side, and another had her sliding behind Cardin faster than he could react. Unbalanced from hitting nothing but air, he was easy pickings for a slash that knocked him on his rear.

Did she just hear that right? Her eyes searched out in the crowd for where her team was, completely ignoring Cardin getting back up. Ruby swore she even heard _Weiss_ cheering for her, now.

"Ignore the crowd, Ruby!" Adam shouted. "You want to be a Huntress, right? Then crush him! Team RWAY runs from no one!"

Ruby's grip around Crescent Rose tightened. You know what, she thought, they were right! What was she so worried about? Who cared about what the crowd thought, she had her team at her back!

Cardin rushed her, pushing his aura to his limits to try to match Ruby at the least in the speed of his swings. He was finally taking her seriously, but unfortunately for him, it was far too late to do so. In twirls of red and bursts of gunfire, Ruby deflected each and every swing of his mace with her scythe, weaving through his clumsy blows to land ones of her own across him. When he raised his weapon high for a frustrated, final blow and left himself open, there was no hesitation.

Ruby turned away from Cardin, brought Crescent Rose behind her and slammed the haft of Crescent Rose into his side. It wasn't enough to budge him, but Cardin froze anyway. The blade was behind him, scraping up right where his armor ended. Ruby glanced over her shoulder to see the realization dawning on Cardin's face, and the anger it brought rushing with it.

She didn't give him the chance to do anything about it, though.

With a grin, she pulled the trigger and backflipped over Cardin as he was thrown forward. The buzzer sounded as he struck the ground.

Normally, she hated judging gazes and praises alike... but, as the crowd erupted in cheers and she happily waved to her team, Ruby actually thought it felt pretty darn good.

* * *

This place was changing him, Adam thought. Yet, he didn't know if that was truly a bad thing, even as he found himself cheering like a fresh recruit when that buzzer sounded.

* * *

Roman Torchwick whistled as his loyal, ice cream-colored associate laid out the bills for the month. Heating and electricity had gone clean through the roof from the richest folk—like himself—to the poor. Dust prices were rising across the board to the highest they'd ever been in years, shops were closing their doors for good, the government even stepped in to begin rationing, not that the Huntsmen and Huntresses would ever notice with their priorities. Even Beacon would be sheltered from the news. Just like he planned.

Laughing his way up to the window of his apartment that sat atop the highest skyscraper he could find, Torchwick lit himself a fine cigar. The bills wouldn't bother him a bit, but, he wondered: what would the little ants down there think of one class of citizens getting Dust to waste freely outside the Kingdom while they starve inside it? Well, considering that river of flame and dark figures rioting through the street beneath him, not too highly was the answer.

"Neo, I think this is my finest work, if I do say so myself." His partner stood atop a chair to get a better view of the rioting below them. She turned to him with an amused look.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry, I know, 'remember, you are only a man'." The Schnee Dust Company had ordered an emergency shipment of Dust to be sent to Vale: entire freighters' worth, normally impossible due to just how big a target they would be, and he was going to steal it. All of it. He'd be stronger than any king, councilman, Huntsman or _Headmaster_ out there. Most importantly, he'd still be a man.

Not a monster, like those thugs without moral or class. Not an animal, like the White Fang that had only grown more violent since that 'Captain Almond' took charge. Not whatever his boss truly was.

A man. Greater than all.

"Ring up Cinder. Tell her we got almost everything lined up: we're letting the first freighter go. After the false sense of security, we're taking out the second." Neo nodded to her boss with an evil grin and vanished in a rush of light.

Torchwick took a long drag from his cigar.

"Two months, Vale. Make 'em count."

* * *

 **A/N: Short, I'll admit, but it's more of a wrap-up than anything else.  
**

 **NOTE:** **This is where the current set of revisions as of 2019 END. Some things may be off(such as CFVY's existence next chapter), there may be a drop in quality, etc.**


	12. The Calm Before The Storm

**The Calm  
**

In the afternoon two days after Cardin was wiped out by Ruby, someone left a book by a tree in the courtyard. Already, Adam could guess it wasn't a textbook: those things were practically worth their weight in Dust. Curiosity took over, however, and he reached down to pick it up. No title, no information, just a simple black sleeve over it. He flipped the cover open and instinctively grimaced.

'Ninjas of Love 2: Romance of Ronins,' it read. Naturally. It sounded like something Blake would read... Adam frowned, at that. How many weeks had it been since they last spoke to one another? Each night, he had called, wondering if the White Fang had caught up to her already, or if she had simply forgotten about him. Adam snorted at that; no, even if their relationship had fallen apart, they were still too close for that. Curiosity began to take over: exactly what _did_ Blake find so entrancing about these books, anyway?

Adam flipped open to a random page close to the beginning, and began to skim. Three pages later, and he'd flipped back to the first page: really, there was no point in reading without context.

Ten pages later, he was leaning against the tree. Why, he couldn't gather a synopsis if the sun was in his eyes.

Thirty pages later, he caught himself slumping down against the rough bark. For... smut, it was rather well-written. He'd have to read further if he wanted to _really_ figure out what Blake's infatuation with these kinds of books were about.

Eighty pages later, Adam decided he ought to stay here and make sure no one stole the book, and while he stayed here, he might as well spend time reading through it. After all, what else what he was supposed to do?

Two hundred and forty-two pages later, not including a couple rereads of certain... more interesting passages, and Adam wiped at his eyes: the sun had such an awful glare. Looking around, Adam realized just how much he had lost track of time: it was late in the evening, now, deep into sunset. The sky was a mix of red and pink, much like Adam's cheeks after he realized not just what he had been reading, but how long he had been reading it for. Adam idly tipped the book closed with his thumb holding his place. He sat up ramrod straight: someone could've seen him. Would they have known what book he was reading? What if the original owner had seen him? His eyes nervously flicked from window to window, pathway to pathway. The last few people were leaving to their dorms. It didn't matter: if anyone had noticed him, they would have said something... or the damage was already done.

Grunting, Adam pushed himself back up the tree from the soft grass. He might as well go back to his dorm: no doubt the others would start getting curious about where he'd went. Frankly, he was surprised at least Ruby hadn't gone searching for him. He idly flipped Ninjas of Love II open again: now, what to do with this... he _did_ only have about ten pages left, and the owner hadn't shown up yet, either...

 _"Oooh, please tell me I just left it here..."_ A soft, accented voice shook Adam from his thoughts, and the sound of hurried footsteps coming towards his position. He turned around the tree-

And found himself face-to-face with a very flustered Velvet Scarlatina.

"O-oh, um, Adam, right? I was wondering if you had seen a... book... anywhere..." Her eyes slowly fell from Adam's face to the open book dangling loosely in his hand. The two stood there for what felt like an eternity. Velvet's eyes were wide, her jaw slack, and her cheeks bright-red. At least in terms of the latter, Adam wasn't doing much better, himself. He snapped the book shut, and Adam was certain she jumped a foot into the air.

"... Let's never speak of this again," Adam murmured and held the book out towards Velvet. Her eyes flicked between Adam's own and the book before she just squeaked and snatched it from his hands. Believing that was the end of that, Adam slowly stepped back, slipped his hands into his pockets and quickly strode towards his dorms. Just a few more minutes and he could forget all about this. Unfortunately, right when he thought he was free, Velvet's voice called out from behind him:

"Wait!" Adam sighed. It was never that easy. He turned his head slightly, not enough to see the rabbit faunus herself, but enough to tell her he was listening. Adam preferred if she saw him blushing and flustered for as little as possible: he cared for his image a little more than he cared to admit. Now holding the book behind her back, Velvet carefully stepped into his view. Her eyes, however, were finding the grass much more interesting than the one she called to.

"I... never got to thank you, for what you did with Cardin. My team had found out about it and," Velvet giggled softly. "Coco said he was lucky he got himself thrown out before they found out. She, um, also said she was thankful, as well." After a couple seconds of silence, she kicked at the ground a bit.

"Well, um, that's it! So, thanks..."

"You shouldn't be afraid to look me in the eye." Surprised by Adam's non-sequitur, Velvet blinked and actually looked up to catch a faint smile pulling at Adam's lips.

"Do you know what people like them like to prey on most? Those who are better than them, but cannot believe it. Don't be afraid to remind them of the former: you _are_ one of the strongest third-years, aren't you?"

"O-oh, no, I wouldn't want to cause a scene..." Velvet's head began to dip, but a light touch to her shoulder brought her sight right back to Adam's. This was something he had to deal with quite a lot in the White Fang: insecure recruits and frightened faunus too fearful of human response to ever make anything of themselves. It had been a long time since he had to personally deal with this, but...

"Sometimes a scene is exactly what they need. Someone needs to stand up for faunus like us, right?" To Adam's surprise, she began to giggle.

"You're beginning to sound a lot like the rest of my team... is it really that bad?" Velvet suddenly paused and furrowed her brow, examining Adam closely. "Wait, 'like us'?" Adam only looked off towards the dying rays of the sun.

"Hm, would you look at the time, I need to return to the dormitories. Enjoy your afternoon, Velvet." In a gesture even Adam admitted to himself was cliche, he tipped his hat, but, it did its job: for a brief moment, his horns were clear and easy to see. Velvet stared in confusion at him for a second, then beamed. She wasn't alone. Faunus friends were so hard to come by. Adam stopped only once on his way to his dorms, just barely within earshot as he called back:

"Oh, and tell me how it ends!" Her cheeks reddening, Velvet huffed and hurried off to her own room.

* * *

It only took a couple days for Velvet to begin sitting with Team RWAY and JNPR at lunch more often when her own team wasn't around. With the combined pressure of her team, Yang, Nora and Adam, it wasn't long before she'd begun pushing back against those who tried to bully her. It also wasn't long before Yang and Ruby began teasing him over his unlikely friend, especially when, due to Velvet's forgetfulness, it was _Weiss_ who found her book the next time she had lost it. Adam soon contemplated if he should leave his room at night at all, now, lest he come back to hear the two sisters giggling amongst themselves before he had even opened the door.

Adam sighed, disappointed by his call to Blake being met with voicemail once again. The faunus at Beacon were even beginning to grow more confident, now, no doubt at seeing even one of their most timid fighting back. If only she could hear it...

* * *

 _"So you wanted me to meet someone?"_ Adam picked up on someone's voice outside their dorm. Odd, she sounded familiar, but he just couldn't put his finger on it...

 _"Yes! I remembered that you never actually got to meet Adam, or the rest of his team, for that matter!"_ He set his book down and walked to the door of their dorm. Ruby poked her head out from his side.

"Oooh, is your _girlfriend_ coming to visit?" She snickered and nudged his side, barely even getting a frown from him. Adam's mistake, of course, was acknowledging such juvenile jabs in the first place, one he realized too late. There was only a single knock at the door before Adam opened it, revealing Velvet and—

"Trilby Boy?" Coco did not so much ask as she did state.

Oh.

 _Her._

* * *

"Are you alright? You've been staring at your Scroll like that for a whole week, now." Ruby leaned over Adam's shoulder, peering into the low light of his Scroll for all his secrets. Alas, Adam snapped it shut before she could see anything. Adam yawned and glanced around at the rest of the room: RWAY and JNPR were planning on having a big night together tomorrow, and gathered this night to try and come up with ideas. Unfortunately, Adam couldn't weasel his way out of this one, which was why he was stuck sitting in a circle with a bunch of girls and Jaune(and Ren) putting ideas to a vote.

And considering how some of their hands were raised, he must've missed one. Had Blake forgotten about him already? Replaced him, even?

"... What's this vote about," He asked, purposefully ignoring the looks of concern from his team. Weiss sighed in disdain and waved her hand towards the rest of the group: Ruby and Yang had their hands up, and Nora was holding Ren's up as well. He looked about as disinterested as he was. As it was, it as a stalemate.

"It seems we must have run out of good ideas already, because _they_ are suggesting we have a poker night." Adam arched an eyebrow. How long had it been since he'd played a game? Around the time he started climbing the ranks, suddenly no one wanted to be the unlucky soul who nabbed his boss's money. He had to admit, however, that he might feel bad cleaning out a bunch of teenagers, even if it was just chips. His eyes fell onto Ruby, who smiled uneasily. She knew exactly what he was going to say:

"Aren't you a little too young for that?"

"Thank you!" Weiss threw her arms up. Ruby puffed her cheeks out, and Yang held her other hand out in her defense.

"Now, now, I'm her big sister, I can watch out for her."

"You're enabling her," Weiss stated flatly.

"No she isn't, she's just... not shielding me!" Ruby nodded with a satisfied grin at her own answer.

"Yeah! She can take it, come on!" Nora added in. Adam couldn't help but notice that Ren had started looking through his own Scroll, now. Weiss crossed her arms and turned her head up to the rest of the group, determined to get her way.

"Well, since we're tied again, Ruby will just have to figure it out on her own time." Adam's eyes slowly panned across the room once more. Weiss was just so ridiculously haughty, tonight. On one hand, Ruby was young, and he didn't want to either make a fool of himself or make a fool of anyone else... _but,_ Weiss was making this way too easy. Bringing an innocent fifteen year old into gambling... or defy a Schnee.

"What's wrong, Weiss, are afraid you'll lose that badly?" He propped his chin up on his fist and smirked. There really wasn't a choice.

"Adam..." Weiss began to warn him, even trying to throw an icy glare his way. As if that would dissuade him.

"I was just curious. So curious, in fact, I think I might want to see for myself." Adam started bringing his hand higher from his chin, enjoying Weiss' anger rising along with it until he had it proudly in the air. Ruby and Yang cheered and high-fived one another while Weiss snorted and shook her head. Jaune and Pyrrha uneasily glanced between one another. Easy targets for later.

"I swear, I must be the only mature person in my team..." Weiss huffed yet again as Yang and Adam high-fived over her head. Adam caught a faint blush on the ice queen's cheeks. He wondered...

* * *

"... Teach me." Weiss stood over Adam the next afternoon as he lounged on his bed with a textbook.

He was right.

"You don't even know how to play? Why not ask Yang? I'm certain Ruby did," Adam replied casually, as if he weren't trying his hardest to not look so smug he'd make Roman Torchwick look like an insecure child. Ruby and Yang were currently off doing a snack and cards run after they realized that they had none of either, leaving the two alone in their dorm. Weiss crinkled her nose in agitation and crossed her arms, intent on staying in control of the situation.

"Don't play dumb, Adam, you and I both know Yang wouldn't let it go." He flicked another page over and got himself comfortable.

"You're overreacting." Weiss growled and kicked his bed. Another page flipped by: Adam wasn't even hiding that he wasn't actually reading, right now. He was too busy watching Weiss simmer.

"Oh, yeah, she's _perfectly_ mature and wouldn't dangle this over me for weeks. Just like she hasn't been dangling Velvet over you, right?" When Adam lingered on the next page and remained silent, Weiss knew she had him beat. Now, it was Adam's turn to be disgruntled. The ice queen leaned over him with a sly smile.

"Like. I. Thought. So, are you going to help me, or not?" She triumphantly placed her hands on her hips, expecting Adam to finally acquiesce to her, now that he'd seen the truth. To her surprise, however, she instead received nothing but silence. Weiss awkwardly glanced from side to side, then cleared her throat.

"I-I _said_ , are you going to help me, or _not-_ "

"I think you're greatly underestimating just how fun I think it is to see you squirm," Adam spoke, catching Weiss off-guard. She sputtered and looked around again, before anger caught up with surprise, and with a stomp of her foot she stormed back to her bed.

"Ugh, fine! You are just impossible, I swear!" Weiss less sat down as much as she threw herself onto her bed, grumbling under her breath. While Weiss went off on her muffled tirade, however, Adam set his book aside and pulled his travel pack from under his bed. In truth, he never fully unpacked: he never saw a reason too, especially if this had ended up to just be temporary. Weiss never noticed the sounds of clothes and items rustling about, having decided to simply pretend Adam's side of the room just didn't exist at all.

She did, however, notice the small box that bounced off of her head. Pushing herself up and turning to Adam with indignant rage in her eyes and a building scream that'd wake up half the dormitories, Weiss opened her mouth wide, and paused. There was a box of cards sitting on the carpet, coincidentally the size of the one that had been so _rudely_ thrown at her. Her eyes flicked between the cards and Adam, sitting on the floor just in front of it with the most _insufferable_ grin she'd seen on him yet.

"Fortunately, it'll be all the better if you actually know what you're doing when you're beaten. Sit down, I don't know which game we're playing, so I'll just show you both." Weiss fully sat up and crossed her legs in defiance.

"I'm sitting down, already."

"On the floor, Weiss. Unless, of course, you want Yang to go around telling people that we were in the same bed, together." Weiss snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Please, as if she'd twist the situation that much for a giggle." Adam stared at Weiss until, with a sigh, she wordlessly conceded that such a thing was exactly what would happen, and sat down on the same level with her... mentor.

"Well, are you going to help me, or not?" Weiss repeated, preemptively turning her nose up at the game. Adam shuffled the deck.

* * *

"... This game is stupid," Weiss flatly stated as she looked at the three cards out in front of them.

* * *

When Weiss was left looking around in a panic as Adam dealt the eight their hole cards in the blink of an eye, Adam was only reassured. The chips were set. The bets were placed. Tonight was looking to be a wonderful night.

* * *

"This game is great! Read 'em and weep, ladies!" Weiss flipped over her cards, winning yet another hand and completely cleaning out Ruby and Pyrrha both of their chips. As Ruby slumped into her chair in saddened disbelief, Adam worriedly began gathering the cards. He expected Jaune and Nora to be steamrolled out of this game in an instant, but, Weiss was also supposed to be on that list. But right now, the princess was going toe-to-toe with himself, Yang and Ren.

And the only reason Adam believed Ren was in it was because he had the single best poker face he had ever seen in his life. Not that he'd ever tell him this.

The deck was shuffled, and eight cards flashed out to their new owners. It hadn't even fazed Weiss.

Adam gulped.

* * *

"Soooo, it might be a _little_ against school rules, but how about we play for lien, next time?~" Weiss merrily skipped in front of her three comrades in arms, all following in various states of shock. She'd wiped them out.

"Do you really have to be any richer," Ruby murmured, still empty from her devastating loss.

"Ruby, my dear, it's not about the _money_! It's about winning!" She dropped onto her bed with a haughty giggle. "Proving that I am once again the best is just extra, of course."

Weiss never told him if she was a hustler or a genuine natural. Considering how she was just as good any other time they played, Adam wasn't sure which possibility he feared most.

"Oh, and by the way, Adam, thanks for the tips~" Either way, he got played. Adam would never live this down.

* * *

He'd miss days like these.

* * *

 **A/N: This point more or less is when content is primarily slight edits and revisions, so we'll be through the rest in a week due to double updates.  
**


	13. Cloudy Days

**Cloudy Days  
**

Dealing with minor cops and the occasional Huntsman over his head had made Adam soft, he had decided. Yes, that must have been the only reason why he found himself challenged at all by the third and fourth years of Beacon. With a grunt, he threw back the blade of his opponent, and had to stifle the urge to use his full capabilities with the retaliatory strike across the senior's chest. It was a decision that led to his defeat: Adam wasn't quick enough to strike before his opponent's foot collided with his face. It was the first loss in Beacon he could remember.

Students capable of standing up against the former leader of the White Fang's Vale Cell: just what was Ozpin planning, with all of this power?

* * *

The reason Adam sparred against the juniors and seniors was simple: to say that his own classmates were poor would be a grave understatement. Sure, there were some that he would have considered bringing into the ranks of the White Fang, but they moved in slow motion to him. His own team was no better: in fact, Adam had taken to dueling the entirety of his own team at once in a grand, one-versus-three fight when he wanted to put himself to the test.

He'd found himself smirking as he laid back against a tree in the courtyard and let his aura recover.

3-2, Adam-R_WY. They were learning, and fast. Good.

It might have been a poor time to battle with his seniors, however: sparring practice with his own peers was his next class. However, Adam did not mind: no one other than particularly arrogant first years who just discovered their semblance wished to spar with him, these days. Try as he might, Adam could only push his strength down so low before it was clear he was holding back against them.

Oh well. At least he could catch a nap, if he was sneaky enough.

Adam snapped _Ninjas of Love_ shut and left it against the tree for when Velvet inevitably remembered where she'd left her book, this time.

* * *

He wasn't sure what was worse: that he was going to lose to Pyrrha Nikos, or that he would have had to try his hardest to have won, in the first place.

* * *

Ruby and Weiss often hung out with one another, Yang had her clubs and he had... nothing. Adam sat alone in RWAY's dorm, spinning his Scroll in his hand in the vain hopes that perhaps it would ring and free him from this miserable boredom. It was now more than ever that Adam realized how much fighting had taken over his life. He'd read through the entirety of his textbooks, taunted Weiss, fought a couple students in a higher grade, chatted with Velvet... what now?

Weiss might've been wrong about him being only able to connect with someone over fighting—Velvet prove her quite wrong on that—but, she might've been onto something. Combat and preparations for such was a significant part of his daily routine. Surely, there must be something better to do...

His eyes turned to the window: the Sun's position told him it was scarcely even five in the afternoon.

A pleading voice reached his ears, and Adam curiously leaned out of the window.

Three freshmen were pushing around a faunus girl with short cat ears behind a building, well away from most of the populous of Beacon. Were he not a faunus, he might not have even seen them altogether, and their voices would have been just part of the crowd. Adam's eyes narrowed: this was far more common than he would have expected. In fact, ever since Cardin's expulsion, Adam thought, the mockery of faunus simply moved from the open to behind closed doors and, there, hidden from the world, grew worse.

No doubt, this was simply those humans—those _bullies,_ Adam corrected himself—trying to place the blame on the faunus. Adam scowled and began to turn towards the door, but froze when he noticed they'd grown quiet.

Too quiet.

He focused and glared down upon the four, fearing the worst. He was correct.

The three humans were slowly reaching back. The faunus girls' hands were at two sheathes at her waist. Of course. Her pride couldn't take much more. She would _have_ to fight back.

But unless they were complete slackers and she was on the level of his team, she wouldn't stand a chance. She'd be beaten, she'd lie about her involvement with the humans to avoid further assaults, and she'd become just another shadow too afraid to even raise her hand when asked about simple discrimination. Her aura would heal her wounds, but not her pride. She'd be cowed. Broken. Just like the rest of his kind.

The human to her left struck first, swinging out a blade that struck nothing but air as the woman ducked down and drew two shortswords to block the second human's overhead swing. It was a stalemate, but one that wouldn't last long. They wouldn't risk using their firearms: aura or not, that would attract too much attention.

Even so, Adam had to act. He snatched Wilt and Blush, threw on his hat and, rather than take the long way out, flipped himself out of the dorm's window and launched himself off the wall towards the fight.

The advantage of aura protecting one's self was a double-edged sword for the faunus who unlocked them: while they might not take permanent injury, some took it as all the reason in the world to attack them. After all, they could sleep easy at night knowing they weren't _really_ hurting them.

They weren't _really_ like those oppressors the White Fang spoke about. They were still good. The faunus were still evil.

By the time he approached, the faunus had taken a blow: all three had ganged up on her, forcing her into a dance of blades and twirls that left her shortswords clashing against the humans' own as they surrounded her. She parried one and took her opening to rake her sword across his chest, launching him out of the fray, but leaving her back open to a jab from the leader's staff. Thrown to the ground by the sudden force, she stared fearfully up at the three approaching students. The leader spun his staff and raised it high.

It would be so easy to kill them all. Adam could already envision it: one leap when he was within 5 feet, a second off of the leader's own staff into a spinning jump over them both. One slash across the leader's neck, one slash across the survivors' backs upon landing. Their auras were so weak that he would scarcely even need to put effort into his blows. It would be instantaneous.

But that would ruin his chances, here.

The faunus prepared herself for the worst when, in a rush of black, someone front-flipped over her to-be assailant and in midair slammed a blade into him hard enough to create a blinding flash. By the time her sight returned, her savior was standing atop an unconscious human's chest with a crimson blade pointing at the final one. The leader had already collapsed in a heap: she realized that the burst of light had been from his aura being completely drained in a single blow.

"Leave. I will not ask you a second time." The final human slowly lowered his weapon and, trembling, dragged his teammates off.

Adam spun Wilt and slowly sheathed his blade. Yes, all he had was fighting. But, it was fighting for what was right... fighting to protect the weakened faunus from those who oppressed him, even if he was not part of the White Fang any longer. However... that did give him an idea. One that would not just strengthen the faunus but give him something to do.

"Tell me," He begun, turning to face the rising girl, the rounded cat ears on her head marking her as a cheetah faunus. Adam remembered her, now: that girl he'd seen during the initiation. He wondered, briefly, if these three were part of her own team.

"Do you want to become strong?" Her eyes hardened.

That was all the answer he needed.

* * *

Adam couldn't help but notice just how disgruntled Weiss was becoming with him in the days following his morning training sessions with those who wanted to _truly_ improve themselves. Perhaps it was simply because of how many faunus were beginning to sign up for it: after all, as far as they knew, he was one of the only humans who were not just sympathetic towards faunus, but actually willing to _do_ something about it. They were learning slowly, but it would not be long before he knew they could defend themselves well.

After all, who better to teach them than someone who was already well-versed in preparing an army?

He had saluted to 'his' students and began making his way out of the courtyard they'd chosen as their impromptu training grounds to find Weiss waiting for him at the door to a building not yet in use.

"We need to talk." Her voice was low and cold, very much befitting the nickname she'd gotten amongst other students: Ice Queen.

"What about?" Adam didn't bother hiding his disdain for the inevitable conversation.

"Don't play stupid, Adam; about little private army you've been building." When he only arched an eyebrow, Weiss snarled and yanked him into the room, where she knew she could speak her thoughts openly:

"Do you think the rest of the school haven't noticed your little displays out there in the courtyard? People have been whining to Ruby and I about how we've got some faunus-sympathizing _radical_ in our group! What's next, hm? Are you going to start handing out masks?" Even in private, Weiss spoke in hushed, harsh tones. It annoyed him, but not as much as it did when the Schnee advanced towards him, having the _nerve_ to step close until they were only inches apart.

Adam caught that look in her eyes, again: hints that this anger was not simply based on a single incident. He didn't care. A step forward forced her back.

"What's wrong, _**Schnee,**_ " He let the bile and hate her family truly invoked in him show as it was his turn to advance. Unlike him, Weiss backed up. "Are you afraid that the faunus might start being able to defend themselves? Do you _want_ them to be pressed down and forced to endure like the good little slaves you've got back at home?" She closed her eyes and stopped.

"Have a struck a nerve?" He leaned down until their eyes met. Weiss mumbled clenched her fist and muttered something under her breath.

"What was that-" She viciously slapped him.

"YOU DON'T KNOW MY FAMILY! You don't get to treat them like they're the evil scum when your kind does worse!" Adam didn't hear her. The only thing he heard was Blake's voice, asking, _pleading_ for him not to react. Wilt and Blush shook in his grip. That slap, in one movement, had launched his mentality back from Beacon and right back into the White Fang. Crimson bled into the emerald of his eyes as he slowly looked down on Weiss. On the **Schnee** , the insolent _whelp,_ who dare raise her hand against him like he was a disobedient animal!

Weiss's breath caught in her throat the moment her hand drew back to her side: she'd lost control. She'd slapped her own partner for something she didn't like: the truth? It was something her father would do, and that filled her with guilt. If she could ignore Adam being a faunus for so long, to let it blind her now would be folly, at best. She swallowed her pride and focused on Adam, ready to apologize for being rash.

Ice-blue eyes met crimson, and Weiss froze. Adam's nostrils flared with each slow, restrained breath. His hair and eyes both were emitting a dim, red light. Her mind jumped back to her father and those horrid days when he returned home after hearing the news of yet another facility destroyed or family member murdered, so full of rage and searching for a target to take it out on. This was worse. Far worse. This wasn't the desire to lash out and hurt.

It was to kill.

Weiss had once seen that dark mark of anger burned into him, but she now realized this was only the edge of the hatred that actually lurked in her partner. Hatred all focused onto her. There was simply no way this was borne from a single slap; it had to have been hidden, lurking under the surface for the entire time they knew one another. What were once just petty insults and scowls suddenly took on new meaning, and formerly good memories were stained by doubt.

"A-Adam?" Weiss tried to get his attention. His eyes were literally glowing with bloodlust. Weiss trembled, suddenly aware of their privacy. She was alone with him. With someone who hated her to her very core. Her breath quickened. This was a mistake.

 _Kill her now._ Adam's wrath roared at him. Yet, his heart, always calling to him in Blake's voice, was quick to respond:

 _There'd be no going back from it, Adam, you'd lose them all._

 _She's just like them!_

 _She's just angry, Adam.  
_

 _She thinks every group of faunus will become the White Fang!_

Silence. His anger continued to fester.

 _She'll turn the rest of the team against you. You won't have anyone else. They care more for her than you. They'll leave you. Just like Blake. You'll be alone._

 _Do what you should have done on the train._

 _Betray her before she betrays you!_

 _..._

 _You're losing yourself._

"Adam!" His eyes focused on Weiss. She was trembling, now, her hand grabbing tightly onto her rapier, but her stance screaming that she wanted to run. Adam realized at some point that he had drawn Wilt an inch out from its sheath, the gleam of crimson unmistakable against the black of his coat and Blush alike. He could see the two paths ahead of him:

He could demand that she leave his sight and throw the Schnee out. He could let her know just how worthless her opinion was to him, and that it would be best if they never spoke of this argument again: she was a smart girl. She'd know it was for her safety, not his feelings. Weiss would return to her teammates and JNPR and she would no doubt tell them anyway. A split would develop: those who believed she went too far, and those who believed it was him who did so. Rich humans were always so good at spinning lies that he doubted his faction would be large. But it would be enough to shatter friendships. Forever.

Or...

"I'm sorry, I did not mean to grow so angry. Just _do not touch me, again._ " Adam could swallow his pride, and keep his illusion of normalcy for just a little longer. Weiss' trembling stopped, and she let her gaze fall towards the ground. Her stance did not change.

"I... shouldn't have slapped you like that. I've just seen too many groups—" 'Of faunus' went unsaid. "Getting together for self-defense turn... violent." Adam took a single step forward. He refused to let her hide under implications.

"Say it." Weiss winced and glanced away. "Say it!" Adam shouted.

"I-I'm afraid another White Fang will show up, alright! Why shouldn't I! You're... you're practically having a military parade of faunus out in the middle of Beacon and you think I can just _ignore_ it! Just... just forget it! Forget I said anything at all!" Her rage felt hollow as she rushed towards the door.

"Tell me something, Schnee." She stopped with the door half-open.

"Would you have feared me if I were human?" Her grip on the handle tightened, and her shoulders sank. They both knew the answer was no.

 _"Sorry."_ Weiss whispered.

And then she was gone.

* * *

By horrid coincidence, the two were the only ones in the dorm, that night. With all of her might, Ruby would not have been able to cut through the tension between Weiss and Adam. The two sat on their respective beds, Weiss doing homework, Adam having finished his and already moved to reading through one of his textbooks yet again with his back against the wall and his Scroll by his side. There were only the sounds of her pencil against paper and pages flipping by.

Neither wanted to say anything: Weiss out of fear, Adam out of simple disinterest. If the Schnee would so openly continue her racism, then so be it. He refused to pretend like they were more than acquaintances at most: in the White Fang, you learned to fight alongside people you honestly wouldn't care if they were dead. You don't choose your partners, after all.

Weiss, on the other hand, paradoxically feared that she had messed up for good, this time. She was afraid he would do something stupid, like form some kind of faunus brigade that'd no doubt spiral out of control, but, she was much more afraid to... as much as she hated to admit it, lose her friend. And Adam _was_ her friend, just a... very stubborn and sometimes dangerous one. Weiss stroked the bridge of her nose, mind fighting between what she had been taught all her life, and the simple desire to just keep a friend.

She groaned in frustration and threw her homework aside.

* * *

Adam felt the bed sink ever so slightly. A few seconds later, the source shifted closer. Then closer again. Then, he could catch a flicker of movement from out of the corner of his eye.

"... I propose a truce." He glanced at the source of the disturbance on other side of the bed: the Schnee was sitting a few inches away, her legs and arms crossed even as she leaned against the wall. Perhaps it was the simple difference between her usual, princess-like attire and a simple gown with her hair let down that made her sound more genuine. Adam refused to believe it was actually because he _wanted_ her to sound genuine in any way. Adam let the suggestion linger for a few seconds, then sighed.

"Elaborate." Weiss shuffled uncomfortably near him, yet continued to try and sound confident as she replied:

"It is clear that there are some... severe, if not almost irreconcilable differences between us that may prove to be an obstacle if we wish to cooperate well in combat. So, I am suggesting a cessation of our hostilities: if I can trust you and stop comparing you to the rest of the rabble, then you be nicer and... try not to hate me so much." Her attempts to speak in a cordial and official manner slowly faded into a quiet mumble. Try as she might, Weiss found it a little awkward and more than a little saddening to try and talk someone out of genuine hatred, especially when that person was supposed to be your partner, if not your friend.

Adam, meanwhile, could scarcely believe she was being this blunt about it. He snorted and closed his book, finally turning to face Weiss in full.

"Is this how you befriended the others," He asked dryly. Weiss let out a hollow chuckle.

"Not exactly. It hasn't ever come to this, with them, or with anyone, for that matter..."

"Tell me," Adam let the words drag and linger in the air for just a moment, enough to get Weiss to finally look at him. "What do I get out of this?"

To his surprise, she smirked.

"The same thing I do, of course: another friend," Her eyes subconsciously fell towards the Scroll Adam had gotten so attached to, recently. "And... maybe not needing to feel alone, sometimes?" It was hard for him to ignore the memories of dejection he'd seen in Weiss' eyes so long ago when they first tried peace. Ruby and Yang would always have each other, but Weiss always looked... separate from them both. Of course, when they formed the social core of your team, how wouldn't someone feel a little left out? Especially after such a catastrophic first meeting. And second. And third, really.

The fourth wasn't much better, from what he'd heard.

So she was left to either butt in on two close sisters, or talk with someone who despised her family. An easy way to find yourself alone amongst 'friends'.

It was pathetic. Adam cared little for loneliness. He cared little for the detachment he felt even when he was surrounded by those kind to him. He cared little for the fact that he felt like he was always waiting for something. Someone.

He cared little for the fact that his heart wouldn't let him feel like he wasn't alone until Blake had arrived.

Yes, he didn't care about having to come to terms with the fact that he'd been abandoned at all.

Adam noticed that Weiss was holding her hand out towards him, an awkward smile on her face.

"Hmph, what an awful deal." She briefly looked hurt, but hid it behind a neutral expression. Neutrality turned to surprise as Adam shook her hand.

"The worst truce I've ever accepted." Weiss took a second to realize that it was just his stubborn way of accepting things. This time, she couldn't hide how her eyes lit up.

"Great! Now, as our first order of friendly business... show me how you finished Oobleck's homework that fast, please?" Weiss leaned forward with what she must have assumed was her most charming smile. Adam could see the relief in her eyes.

He hoped she couldn't see the traitorous relief in his own. Even if it was a Schnee, a truce did not sound all that terrible, to him.

* * *

In retrospect, Adam never understood why he thought it would last.

* * *

 **A/N:** **What I'm trying to do with Weiss is imagining her in a situation where she is, essentially, alone. In canon, Blake did not seem to hold any true ill will towards Weiss, meaning there was someone who had somewhat similar characteristics. Someone fresh. With Adam replacing Blake, pre-Volume 2 she's stuck between a rock(nudging her way into a pair of sisters) and a hard place(someone intelligent, mature and stubborn like her, but** ** _hates_** **her).**

 **As such, she's grown a little more insecure and more fitting of her own theme. Weiss never wants to return to that hateful, cold home she lived in before, and often her conflicts with Adam both on and 'off-screen' here end with the reality check that if Adam ends up despising her fully, outlook for friends is grim.  
**

 **On the other side, there's Adam facing a similar situation: he's too stubborn to admit even to himself that he really enjoys having friends around, and is secretly afraid of doing something that would cause them to abandon him like Blake has. While the two tried to be more friendly and genuinely did become more fond of each other, their individual prejudices subconsciously keep pushing them right back to acquaintances.**


	14. The Storm

**The Storm**

* * *

It'd been a few days, now, since he and Weiss had officially made their truce, and Adam had finally allowed himself to sink into normalcy once again. His mornings were taken up by the increasingly organized, yet still impromptu self-defense classes he held for his faunus students, his afternoons were unsurprisingly absorbed by school, and his evenings were spent not alone but with his team. He had even begun genuinely talking with other students beyond Velvet.

It had taken months, but, finally, Adam began to feel like he truly belonged.

And he knew that could never last.

That afternoon, however, there didn't appear to be any reason for his suspicions to someone looking from the outside: Weiss was all but skipping down the roads lined with balloons and ribbons, Yang and Ruby were relentlessly teasing her about her sudden happiness and how it was over something as droll as organization, and Adam was idly chipping into their conversation behind them, eyes scanning across the faceless crowd. With the Vytal Festival approaching, his team—or, rather, Weiss—had decided that they should watch the docks for the arriving students of Vacuo and introduce themselves as representatives of Beacon. In other words,

"She wants to gather information on them to strategize around later. I thought it was clever." Adam never heard the response, for his attention was drawn to a crime scene down another street: another dust shop broken into, from the looks of it, and one utterly ransacked, no less. These stories had been showing up more and more often, and Adam could not figure out just who it was or what it was for. The closest thing to a 'clue' he had was Ruby mentioning that the reason she was allowed into Beacon early was stopping another robbery by a 'Roman Torchwick'. Was this the beginnings of some sort of turf war? The train car would have set the White Fang for months to come, it couldn't have been them...

He noticed the conversation around him die down. His teammates must have followed his sight.

It was the second Dust shop that week, and they had not even touched the money.

"You, ah, you thinkin' the White Fang?" One of the police officers on scene casually asked the other: another sign of just how common this was getting.

"I'm thinkin' we don't get paid enough."

"Those White Fang really are just an awful bunch of degenerates." He arched an eyebrow at Weiss' sudden, snide comment.

"I don't exactly see how they were related to this attack," Adam dryly retorted.

"Please, didn't you hear the police? It was clearly them!"

"They would have no reason to have all of this Dust—"

"They don't have a reason for anything they do! They're just a bunch of ruffians, and insane ones, at that!" Weiss interrupted Adam outright. He took a deep breath and prepared himself. This was going to be a long day.

"The White Fang are neither insane, nor do they commit acts without reason: if anything, it is the exact _opposite._ It is—" He caught himself before he could accidentally imply his former position through a slip of the tongue or speaking for them. "They believe it's the only way to achieve equality." Weiss scoffed in a mix of disgust and disbelief.

"I didn't know equality meant wiping humanity off the face of the planet."

"How unsurprising, push a group far enough and they start demanding revenge." He needed to abandon this conversation, and fast. Whether or not he was a traitor, the White Fang—especially the Vale Cell—were still _his_ people, and all the time in the world playing student wouldn't let him take too many attacks on them lying down.

"Still, they had no reason to attack this shop. They serve faunus, they didn't jack up their prices, the money wasn't stolen when the White Fang would need that just as much _and_ they're in the middle of Downtown Vale. Something isn't adding up." Adam turned away to hide his sigh of relief when that got Ruby's attention. Weiss, however, only appeared to be silent because she was glaring daggers at him, clearly in thought.

"Adam's got a point: they never caught that Torchwick guy I fought a while ago, maybe it was him..."

"I thought about that, but, what would a random criminal need with that much dust?" Adam replied, hoping to steer the conversation as far away from the White Fang as possible.

"That does not change the fact that the White Fang are a bunch of scum." As he suspected, Weiss was only quiet because she was thinking of what else to say and, frankly, her tone sounded like it was implying something a little too close for comfort. "Those faunus only know how to lie, cheat and steal!" He glared down at Weiss. She was playing with fire.

"That's not... _necessarily_ true." Yang actually agreeing with Weiss was like a knife to the back. Adam's glare only intensified and locked onto Yang.

"And what, pray tell, do you _mean_ by 'those faunus'?" He growled out at them both. Shame on him, he thought, for forgetting that he was still amidst humans.

 _"Hey! Stop that faunus!"_ Fate had an awful sense of humor.

While the rest of the team rushed over to the docks to see what the commotion was about, Adam leisurely strolled up, taking the time to cool himself off. He had gotten to the railing just in time to see a well-built monkey faunus with blonde hair chuck a banana peel right at a police officer's face. White, open shirt, beaten up blue jeans, scuffed and ratty sneakers... either he was a stowaway, he was from Vacuo, or a combination of the two.

With a laugh that seemed just a bit too sinister for someone just stowing away, the faunus was off, racing up the stairs and easily outpacing the police. In only a couple seconds, he was darting past them. Perhaps it said something about the mystery stowaway's personality that he found the time to flirtatiously wink at Yang as he passed.

Perhaps it said something about _Yang's_ personality that she was quick enough to wink and smirk back.

Weiss turned to her with a confused, scandalized expression.

"... What? It was instinct!"

"Ugh, whatever, we have to catch him!" She dashed off in pursuit, leaving the rest of the team to follow, right up until Adam jogged his way to the front and started to slow down, purposefully making the team slower with him.

"Is there any particular _reason_ we're chasing after him?"

"Well, as huntresses—and huntsman—in training, we should be helping the authorities, now pick up the pace!"

"Are you certain that's the _only_ reason, _Schnee?_ " That got her to stop outright near an intersection and spin on her heels to glare at Adam.

"And just _what_ are you implying?" Realizing only afterwards that stopping meant the faunus was gaining ground, Weiss scoffed, started stomping around the corner,

"Sal-u-tations!" And fell right onto her rear as a young teen suddenly spun around the corner in front of her. She was an odd type: pale-orange hair, bright, light-green eyes full of such much innocent glee Adam could've sworn she was glowing, and a plain outfit broken up only by strange, black segments on her neck and stockings with glowing, green stripes. She smelled... strange. Like metal. This must have been an Atlas child.

Weiss grumbled something and pushed herself up to her feet, then tried to advance. The girl only stared at them all with a goofy smile, apparently not comprehending that she wanted her to move. Stuck at an impasse, Ruby was the first one to actually address her.

"Uh... hello?"

"My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny introduced herself loudly to the four with slightly stilted speech. Definitely Atlas. Only they would have someone so cooped up that they couldn't even talk to people correctly. The group, himself included, took a step back from her.

"Hi Penny, I'm Ruby!"

"Yang."

"Look, we are a little busy right now, so if you wouldn't mind stepping out of the way, that would be really nice." Weiss didn't give a chance for this silliness to go on any longer. Penny stared blankly at Weiss for a moment, then suddenly jolted like she had snapped out of a trance and replied:

"Wow! That's a really long name! It's a pleasure to meet you!" Yang snorted.

"Hey, look at that, she has jokes! But, uh, really, we oughta be going, now!" Adam had already begun walking in the opposite direction by the time Yang even finished saying that much. Ruby waved and followed, leaving Penny just staring ahead at them once again with that same smile.

"Take care!" After just a moment too long to be natural, Penny exuberantly waved them off.

Weiss stroked the bridge of her nose.

"Now we'll never catch that degenerate..." She grumbled. Adam tried to bite back his response, but it was no use.

"Oh, please! Does being a stowaway really warrant calling him a ruffian and a degenerate as if he were common street scum?" He pointed at Weiss, making it very clear that this was a direct challenge.

"Laws are laws! Just give him time and I bet he'll join the White Fang, like the rest of them." Now, it was Adam's turn to look scandalized.

"So ignorant, as if talk like that isn't the reason people join in the first place! Always acting so high and mighty while you stomp the weak under your shoe, you're no different from the rest of your company!" Weiss' eyes briefly flashed with hurt, but hardened just as quickly. When Adam attempted to march off, Weiss was right behind him.

"How dare you talk to me like that! I distinctly recall we had a truce, Adam!"

"Just because you _hide_ how you feel about me doesn't mean I'm going to stand by and let you spout your prejudice against the faunus!"

"Prejudice implies that it isn't based on fact! Are you telling me that a criminal faunus _wouldn't_ join the White Fang?"

"I'm telling you that saying a criminal would solely based on him _being_ a faunus only throws your true colors out for the world to see! The colors of a _Schnee!_ "

"That's not a denial, Adam: are you saying the White Fang are radicals, after all?" Yang and Ruby watched helplessly: it was the two most stubborn and needlessly aggressive members of their team. Short of physical interference, there was just nothing they could do at all. They could only hope the fight ended soon.

* * *

Moonlight streamed into their dorm room over the two arguing partners. It didn't.

"I don't get this! We had a truce! You said we were going to be friends, and now you're causing this huge problem over nothing!"

"Nothing? You're insulting my entire race!" He flung his hat onto the ground in rage. By now, the two were standing nary a foot away, glaring fiercely at one another as they argued. It hadn't become a physical altercation, but, Ruby and Yang feared it was only minutes away.

" _You're_ defending a group of terrorists who despises humanity! The faunus of the White Fang are pure evil!"

"And your kin aren't? Don't make me laugh! They fight fire with fire, to make sure people like Cardin, people like Jacques—" Weiss inhaled sharply at the direct mention of her father, and her eyes flickered with rage. "People like _**you**_ can't step on them with impunity!" She looked like she'd been slapped. Being called hateful and racist? She was a Schnee, she was used to that. But to be compared to _**him**_ by someone who actually knew her? Who spoke to her? Who she at least tried to consider a friend? That was a knife to the back, even from Adam.

Hurt gave way to indignation.

"They stepped on _my_ family all the time! I'm the victim, here!" The two silently glared at one another, emerald and ice boring into each other in a terrible desire to see the other crack, and the silent wish that the other would just relent. When Adam did not, Weiss continued:

"You want to know why I hate the White Fang?" She jabbed his chest with her finger. "Why I can't trust other faunus?" Another jab. A part of her hoped Adam caught that he wasn't included in that. Weiss just couldn't understand why he was getting so upset over this all of the sudden.

She slowly stepped away from him and turned to the window. Adam did not follow. Instead, he stepped back, and reached for something in his travel bag.

"They've been at war with my family since the beginning. A real war, as in actual bloodshed." She turned back to face him. "Can you even imagine having a target painted on your family's back since before you were even alive? Seeing your friends, your _family,_ all disappear, and show up in an obituary the next day, even as a child? Knowing that the people under you are marked for death for things they never even touched, never _could_ touch?" Weiss' eyes stayed locked onto his: she had meant to be more kind, or at least to just give context, but to hear her be compared to her father so casually... it was then that she understood that he never knew, and never would know what it was like.

"Have you ever seen people you know executed, knowing there are people out there who cheered? I've lost seven board members and I knew every last one of them. How about seeing entire chunks of your livelihood stolen in a flash like the entire train worth of dust that just so _happened_ to vanish?" So enraptured in her cold tirade, Weiss was, that she never saw Adam's fist clenching, nor did she recognize the building fury in his eyes.

"Have you ever had to sit in a house surrounded and filled with hate, from the parents to your own siblings?" She didn't notice him walking forward, either.

"Have you ever... ever had to wonder if people would cheer if you died, too?" Weiss' gaze fell to the ground for only a moment. When she brought it back up to face her opponent in this verbal duel, however, she found Adam looming over her, not even two inches away with eyes of glowing crimson. Yet, this time, she could not see that same hatred and bloodlust she had before their truce. No, this time, Weiss saw...

Frustration.

 _ **"Yes."**_

Out of sight, Ruby's shoulders slumped, and her optimism finally began to crumble. Was this what was going on in her group the entire time? Her team was falling apart behind her back and she never even noticed. She was a terrible leader. She summoned up her courage and, for the first time, tried to step between the two. Ruby placed a hand on Weiss' shoulder, and Yang approached Adam from the other side.

"Weiss, maybe we should..." She only threw Ruby's hand back and shoved Adam a step away.

"No! Then you should know, Adam! You should know why I hate the White Fang! You should know why I can never trust the other faunus: because their methods of murder and terrorism ruins _everyone's_ lives—" Adam forced something into Weiss' arms hard enough to throw her against her bed.

 **"MY METHODS WERE WORKING!"** Adam bellowed.

Silence reigned.

.

.

.

 _"A-Adam?"_ Ruby's soft voice, so fragile and confused, slipped through the air. Her silver eyes, no, _all_ of their eyes, were on Weiss.

And the custom Grimm mask of a White Fang commander staring up at her from her lap.

Weiss was the first one to dare look up at the man—the monster—standing in front of them. All of that hate in his eyes had burned out, leaving only a cold, watchful shell. If Weiss didn't know any better, in fact, she would've thought they looked hollow, but, right now, the only thing that was important to her were the other two girls in this room. After all, their actions would determine their fates... and if what he was implicating wasn't just some sick joke, their lives.

"Who are you?" Ruby's voice cracked. Adam closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and confirmed their worst fears:

"I am Adam Taurus, ex-major and former commander of the White Fang's Vale Cell." Yang's fist collided with his jaw. In a blur of red and rose petals, Red jumped in between them before it could get worse.

"Wait! Wait! W-we should hear him out!" Were it anyone else, Yang would have struck them all the same. Her eyes were a vivid red, flames licking at her hair.

"What's there to hear, Rubes? He's not just a terrorist, he's _leading_ them! He was fooling us!" Ember Celica deployed itself around her hands.

"Led. Past tense." Yang easily yanked Ruby out of the way at the sound of the terrorist's voice and held her sister behind her. Ruby must have gotten through to Yang, however, for, now, she only took up a defensive stance. To both of their surprise, however, Adam just collapsed onto his bed, leaning forward on his knees. He dragged a hand through his hair and horns, not bringing his eyes to meet theirs.

"A... friend of mine had shown me what I'd done. What I'd become. It was hard for me to accept, at the time, but I should have known even back then that I was staring into the abyss for too long. So I left. I left what I'd been building for the past three years, and everyone I'd met with it, all to follow _her._ She would return to her home to try and change the White Fang at its roots, and I would come here to..." Blake had said it was to learn to coexist with humans, but, he knew now what his true mission now, was.

"Cleanse myself of the darkness in my heart." He lazily dragged his sight up to the three girls. While Adam knew he might've appeared aloof, the truth was that he'd simply accepted whatever was about to occur. He had no plans of going without a fight, however.

"... Is it working?" To his surprise, Yang had let Ruby closer to him, again. Adam turned to the innocent one of the four, and a quiet chuckle escaped him.

"I consider three humans to be my friends and haven't had the urge to set fire to a Dust shop in two days, I'd call that progress."

"O-oh, well, uh... two days is _kinda_ long..." Ruby fumbled and tried to make something nice out of it. Yang narrowed his eyes at him.

"It was a joke. A poor one, sorry. However, for what it's worth, I did enjoy being here. My word doesn't mean much, that I know, but I can assure you that I had no plans on... 'regressing' any time soon. I doubt I can ever be forgiven for the acts of my past, but that doesn't mean I can't try to at least be remembered for _something_ pleasant." As Adam spoke, Yang's eyes pierced through him like an x-ray, searching for everything from flaws in his story to his tone. She could sense a little venom in there, alright, yet, it sounded like it was directed solely at himself.

And so they remained there, silently arguing with and within themselves on what to do, if anything. He was a terrorist leader, but he'd left. He'd killed who knows how many, now he wanted to save that many. He was a beast, but he was trying to restore his heart.

He was their enemy, but he was also their friend.

 _"I-It was you..."_ The three suddenly remembered that Weiss had been sitting there that entire time, eyes wide and bearing a storm of emotions as she stared into the mask. When she finally, shakily, stood up, those ice-blue eyes had finally settled on one thing to bare to the world: betrayal. The mask trembled in her grip.

"It was you, that entire time? Y-you were the one _leading_ a war on my family? All of my friends in Vale who disappeared, all of my family members who perished, all that stolen Dust and money? _You?_ A-and you just sat there, like nothing had happened?" She took a few, slow steps forward. Ruby and Yang glanced nervously between one another. Weiss' breath quickened as rage tried so hard to fight against the feelings of betrayal and sorrow, only to be thrown back beneath the waves as soon as it breached the surface. Her throat grew tight and her eyes burned. She felt like she was going to be sick.

"You called yourself my _teammate,_ my _friend,_ when you killed my loved ones _yourself?_ H-how can you sit there and do that! How can you be so _despicable!_ You expect me to believe that you're nothing more than... than monstrous, _villainous_ scum? Do you _really_ think I'd believe that you aren't waiting to stab me in the back and enjoy it? I bet you were cheering just like the rest of your damned group when my cousins were executed! I... I bet you brought the blade against their neck yourself." The heiress caught herself sniffling as she advanced. This was all his fault. Her _partner_ , the one who had the nerve to sit beside her every day, was the one who ruined her life and laughed about it. A mirthless, broken laugh slipped from her.

"Yeah, yeah! If I went and found their final moments that you _broadcasted_ , I'd find you there, wouldn't I?! I'd hear _your_ voice! See _your_ wretched face!" Adam's silence was all the confirmation she needed and, just like that, she breached the surface of her sadness, and dragged all the spite and fire right with it. She hurled the mask at him, rage blinding her and instead sending it clattering against the wall.

"You disgust me!" She slapped him. There was no guilt, this time.

"You're worse than a Grimm!" Another slap. He wasn't her teammate. Not anymore.

"I despise you!" Her nails raked across his aura. Adam didn't react, sending her anger to new heights.

"I-I... I'll kill you!" Weiss shrieked and lunged at him with tears of rage in her eyes. Her hands never reached Adam's throat.

"W-what? Ruby? Yang?" The former had stepped between the two, the latter grabbing onto Weiss' shoulder to hold her in place. Her eyes bounced between the three in a panic that only grew when she saw Adam clutching Wilt and Blush. Her eyes burned again, but this time it was in rage both at herself for nearly throwing herself into what could've been her death, and her supposed friends from keeping her away from rightful revenge.

"Look, Weiss, I know he's done some crazy things, but..." Yang began. Weiss' eyes widened in shock.

" _Crazy..."_ She repeated in total disbelief. "He's a murderer! You... you aren't actually taking his _side,_ are you?!"

"Yes! Well, no! There's another way around this!"

"I can't believe you, Yang! Ruby, talk some sense into her, this is ridiculous! You know what this barbarian's done!" Ruby winced under Weiss' gaze; even if the two hated each other, her and Adam certainly had at least one thing in common: that positively withering glare. She nervously rubbed her wrist and looked around the room, searching for anything but her feuding friends.

"W-Weiss, he looks pretty serious about this, I mean, can't we at least give him a chance?" Weiss' glare stayed locked onto Ruby for an eternity, then began to fade. Her eyes dull, she finally appeared to relax at Ruby's words, and Yang sighed in relief. One step at a time.

 _"Don't touch me."_ Her frozen, quiet voice surprised even Adam. Yang blinked.

"What?"

"I said don't touch me!" She screamed and pushed the shocked blonde away from her before storming off to the door and throwing it open. JNPR stood on the other side and were nearly bowled over as Weiss forced her way past them.

"Weiss! Weiss, wait, come back!" Ruby called after her, but it was too late. She was gone.

JNPR awkwardly stared at the members of R_AY for a few moments: Ruby staring disbelievingly at the door, Yang hunched over the window, gripping the windowsill hard enough for it to strain in her hands, and Adam sitting on his bed, looking like he was trying to bore a hole through the floor to Mistral with his gaze alone, black stripes through his hair looking just a _little_ too three-dimensional in the moonlight.

"We, uh... heard a big commotion, over here. Is everything alright?" Jaune finally broke the tension.

"... It's complicated." Adam murmured.

"We'll, um, we'll be fine, Jaune, don't worry! We just had a little fight, that's all..." Ruby tried to explain. While none of JNPR looked like they bought it, they respected their privacy enough to back away.

* * *

Weiss didn't know how long she'd been walking for. The sky was dark, but she heard the birds already awakening from their slumber. Normally, she loved the songs of those whimsical creatures, yet, tonight, they sounded like the jeering of crows. Her friends had betrayed her. They'd taken the side of some _terrorist_ , someone whose hands were soaked in blood, instead of hers! She thought they were friends!

She thought they cared about her.

The fleeing girl barely thought to wipe the tears from her cheeks as she wandered through the empty streets of Vale. Weiss didn't know where she could go, now. There was no way she was going to go back to school with that _creature,_ Adam, but it wasn't like she could just walk around Vale forever. She'd need a place to stay, food to eat, clothes to wear, and her father would no doubt notice the sudden drain of funds. He'd want answers. He'd _demand_ answers... and if he knew she wasn't at Beacon, the demand to return to that home would follow.

It wasn't fair! It just wasn't fair! Why! She did everything she could, she was the best teammate she could be, and they'd just thrown her away! And that wasn't even the worst part!

Her breath briefly caught in her throat as she saw a cop car lingering near one of the few shops that was still open. Weiss turned and ran the other way.

The worst part was that every time she wanted to just tell an officer what was happening, her mind would reel, and she'd find herself racing somewhere else. The _worst_ part was that she didn't want to see Ruby and Yang get in trouble for harboring some criminal.

The _**worst**_ part was that Weiss knew, somewhere in there, she considered Adam a friend, too. A murderer. A terrorist. A faunus. A White Fang member. An enemy. A friend.

She let out a quiet scream of frustration as she spun around a corner, only to find herself toppling over onto someone. Great. Just great.

"O-oh sorry!" Weiss looked down to see just who she'd struck.

"Sal-u-tations, 'Look We Are A Little Busy Right Now So If You Wouldn't Mind Stepping Out Of The Way That Would Be Really Nice'!"

* * *

 **A/N: And so some of the bigger changes begin! Don't worry, Sun(and Neptune) will show up eventually, but without Blake to attract him, he doesn't have much of a reason to stalk schools at night and cheer up dashing Schnees. Speaking of Schnee, while I admit I might be straddling the line between IC and OOC, I'm aiming to get across that Weiss and Adam are not all that different, both from parallels between Weiss and canon Blake, and in that they're both worrying so much about being abandoned or betrayed that they aren't letting anyone get close. A very Hedgehog's Dilemma kind of deal. In a way, Weiss sees** ** _herself_** **as the stray: at best, she has Winter and, well, that doesn't look like the most healthy relationship either.**

 **With that said, next time, we'll get some insight on how Adam takes the search for Weiss, and how Ruby and Yang react to him when there's nothing bigger and more immediate to worry about(like Weiss and Adam getting into a real fight).**

 **Also, with the beginning of the climax starting here, rather than making double features, I'll just release the final four chapters one after the other on each day.**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	15. Towards Shadows

**Towards Shadows**

The day after Weiss' departure was one of the worst Adam could recall that didn't involve bloodshed.

 _"Just because we're looking for Weiss doesn't mean were forgetting about any of this. Once we get her back, we're gonna have to do some thinking. Without you."_ Adam stared blankly up at Yang's bed. He'd never fixed those two holes in the bottom: Yang joked that maybe he did that as a reminder not to end up getting his horns stuck again.

 _"... You're worried. Right. Look, maybe you should just stay here for a while. I don't want you and Weiss getting into it out in public again."_ That Saturday had reminded him just how much the tension had faded since he'd first arrived. Now there were no puns, no giggling, no jokes, no suggestions on what to do, no clubs. Adam, though his agility and intelligence, had never gotten himself in prison before, but he wondered if this was what it was like: a droll day and night of reading that was just an attempt to hold off the looming worry and growing anger.

With how important Weiss was to the world at large and how dangerous Vale was, right now, they'd decided to search that day to search for Weiss. Without him. Then they would judge his place. Without him. Then there was no doubt in his mind that they would continue on. Without him. At best, he would be given the option to disappear. At worst, they would inform the authorities, and he would be on the run yet again. Normally, this would not be a problem, he could always just regroup with Blake and assist her in Menagerie, but...

Adam lifted his Scroll up and scowled. He hadn't heard from Blake in months. The Scroll shuddered in his hand. He wanted to shatter it. He wanted so much to be rid of the reminder of Blake's abandonment, but his heart just wouldn't let him. Have hope, it said. One day, it said. With a scowl, he gripped his Scroll tighter, then hurled it at the other side of the room, enjoying the satisfying _whump_ it made against the wall before clacking down behind Weiss' bed and out of sight.

His heart only got him into trouble. He should have never listened to it in the first place: not here, and not with _her._

* * *

"Why." Blake had let her guard down. That was a mistake. Adam was across the train cars and behind her in an instant. His darling gasped and spun around to face him, her hand already on Gambol Shroud. Did she not expect him to stop her? Did she expect him to _harm_ her? Behind his mask, Adam's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"I asked you a question, Blake," He growled.

"You've changed, Adam." It was a conversation they'd had before.

"You've gotten weak."

"No! I'm not weak! I don't want to kill innocents!" Adam scoffed at her innocence.

"Innocents? Blake, do you even remember what train we're on?" He snapped around and waved his hand back at the cargo, all marked with the snowflake logo of the SDC. "It's a _Schnee_ train: no one in that company is innocent!"

"How is the White Fang is different?" Her breath caught short: Adam's blade, Wilt, was already pressed to her neck, a surreal, black glow rising from where the edge of its blade just barely slipped through her aura. Blake looked up to Adam in utter shock.

"You know I care so much about you, Blake... which is why I'm asking you to choose your next words very carefully." Curiously, Blake's eyes only hardened at his threat. She made no effort to move away from Wilt.

"Not everyone in the White Fang are murderers like us. What about the people just handing out fliers? Or donating? Or just driving our trucks? That's exactly what the people on this train are: non-combatants. Adam, if we kill them... if you kill them... you'll be just like the SDC. I can't stay with you like this. Not after guiding you to this point, myself. This was my fault..." Retaliation. That was what he wanted to say: it was retaliation for when they did the same to the faunus everywhere. But then he remembered the time it was revenge. Then the time it was self-defense. Then the time it was just going too far in his attacks. Then when it was an accident. There were many excuses he used, and Adam could tell by the look in Blake's eyes he would hear each one torn to shreds.

Adam hesitated.

"It's the only way they'll listen, Blake, you know that." His words were hollow and he knew it. The pressure against her neck lessened, but the pressure Blake put on Adam only grew.

"So what happens when we win, then! Are we going to bomb the humans every week just to remind them of who the White Fang are? We'll only rule through fear!"

"No! This is a necessity! Once we win, our governments will protect our people!"

"Governments built on the bodies of countless innocents, Adam! What happened to our revolution!"

"This _is_ our revolution, Blake!"

"This is terrorism! Even if you won, Adam, you'd plunge the world into darkness that'd make the Grimm look kind. Fear, violence, discrimination, that's all the White Fang is, now!" She took a breath to steady herself. "And I'm leaving, Adam. I..." She closed her eyes, and all of that passion faded as she muttered the words he wished he'd never have to hear:

"I don't want to see you again." And just like that, the White Fang left his mind. Blake really was trying to leave him, just like that? She was his friend for as long as he could remember: his partner, his comrade, and at one time, his lover. Maybe it was arrogance, but if he couldn't convince Blake of all people that there was something of worth in him, maybe there really was nothing at all. Adam was a melodramatic man, at heart, prone to rash, sudden decisions built on passion rather than planning. When Blake walked past Adam without resistance, only for him to yank back harshly by her shoulder, the fading logic in his mind warned him this was one of them.

She stared blankly at the handle of Wilt now pressing into her abdomen, and the crimson blade Adam held pointing at himself.

"If you think the White Fang's grown that corrupt... then fix it." Her eyes widened, then turned to slits. Rather than cold steel, Blake's fist rammed itself into his stomach, driving out his breath.

"Ugh, that is just like you! Bloodshed won't solve anything, Adam! Not mine, and definitely not _yours!_ " He gritted his teeth, forced down the demands of his mind to retaliate, and turned his head aside as he sheathed his blade.

"Then what do you suggest, partner?" Blake gazed up at him for a time, her lips barely parted to speak. Adam resisted the urge to smile as her ears flicked beneath her bow and her eyes began to dart from side to side. It was what Blake always did when she was planning.

* * *

It was only now that he realized she was planning a way to get away from him.

Not a word Blake had said was true. Not about her desire to change the White Fang, not about how she thought there was hope in him, after all, not in about how she wanted him to simply mingle with humans. It was all lies! Lies to get away from him!

 _She was a coward._ The dam built up for months, constructed of peaceful memories and optimistic thoughts of the future shattered. With it, came the waves of his hatred in full force.

 _You're a fool for letting yourself fall for it. Just like you're a fool for believing they care._ He instinctively clutched his mask.

 _They're biding their time._ Like another voice altogether, his mind refused to stop chanting to him.

 _They outnumber you. They have friends. They have power. They won't just leave like Blake did. They will_ _ **destroy**_ _you._ His thoughts continued on into the night, even as Ruby and Yang silently arrived with no Weiss in tow. They did not even look at one another. Yang took Weiss' bed for tonight.

 _"It's only temporary. They're worried about you."_ His heart retorted. His more emotional thoughts always held Blake's voice, in his mind, and even in his most doubtful hour, that hadn't changed.

 _Listen to your instincts! You're a faunus! You know what you have to do to be safe._

 _"But is it what would make you happy?"_ His heart questioned and wrestled with his gut instincts. There had been a number of times where one of their team members was angry at the other, though often that would be directed at Weiss or himself, but this was different. This was an all too familiar aggression in the air.

 _It will keep you alive. They've betrayed you in all but name, just like she did. Don't give them the time to strike back._

"There is nowhere else I belong." Adam grumbled to himself, even as he slowly pushed himself up to his feet and walked to the window. A cold breeze cut through him.

 _"Liar."_

 _Liar._

He looked off towards Yang and Ruby; the room felt peaceful, now that they were asleep. Adam knew he was lying to himself. There was a place he'd belong, where he would always belong.

Adam held the mask out into the open air, seeing faint glimmers of the sky through the four slits: the first time he'd peered through it even this much in months.

The next decision was the easiest one he'd ever made in his life.

* * *

"Thank you for walking with me, Weiss!" Penny all but shouted as she walked alongside Weiss that morning into a coffee shop. She stopped at the door and stared up at the logo. Weiss stopped with the door half-open and sighed.

"Yes, Penny—" She nearly collapsed from how hard and abruptly Penny grabbed onto her shoulder.

"You appear to be very low on sleep, Weiss! Coffee is counter-intuitive to sleeping!" Penny dutifully informed her. Weiss opened her mouth to speak, but only shook her head and walked inside anyway. Or, at least, tried to, with Penny's hand being nothing short of a vice on her shoulder. She let out a quiet growl.

"Oh! Sorry!" She snapped her hand back to her side, and Weiss was free to get the strongest thing they had. She couldn't sleep, not with all of this weighing on her mind, but she still needed to think, too. Weiss all but collapsed into a chair, Penny soon taking a seat across from her. The two sat there like that for a while, Weiss sipping at her well-needed source of caffeine, Penny staring straight ahead with that cheery smile that never left her face for more than three seconds. She'd counted.

"... Thanks, by the way, for keeping me company at the hotel. I... _really_ don't want to be alone, right now," Weiss admitted. Penny's smile grew just a little more. They hadn't talked much, at the hotel: Penny just stared at the television as if it were the most interesting thing she'd ever seen in her life. Weiss guessed she must've had her nose in a book for most of her life.

"That's a-okay, Weiss!" Though, something was bothering her...

"Say, Penny, why were you out, that late, anyway?" Penny stared at Weiss for just a second too long.

"I was lost!" She hiccuped and gave a more strained grin. Weiss blinked.

"... Aaalright. I hope I wasn't keeping you from anything."

"It's a-okay, Weiss! I already alerted my team to where I would be!" She hiccuped again.

"Your... team? Like, _Huntress_ team?" Penny nodded and gave Weiss a sharp salute.

"I am combat ready!" Weiss arched an eyebrow.

"You don't exactly look the part." Penny's eyes slowly defocused, then snapped back to reality with a goofy grin.

"... I am combat ready!" She repeated.

"Right." A little weirded out, Weiss was content to finish her coffee, right up until she noticed that Penny had gone from staring blankly ahead to staring directly at her.

"Say, Weiss," She got the weird impression that Penny was copying her. "If you didn't want to be alone, why didn't you visit your team?" Weiss winced, and for the first time, Penny frowned.

"Are you okay, Weiss?" When Weiss only silently stared down at her coffee, Penny slowly lowered herself down and leaned forward until she was back in her sight.

"I am... 'all ears'!" She sounded proud, like it took effort to remember that. Weiss felt unsure: could she really trust her? Oh, who was she kidding, Huntress or not, Penny looked more harmless than Ruby after a nap.

She threw back the rest of her coffee, took a deep breath, and told Penny everything: the terrible things her family had done, how she was finding less and less common ground with her father every passing week, how she wanted to change things in her corporation but karma had swung back in the creation of the White Fang, meaning giving any freedoms was considered negotiating with terrorists. Weiss admitted that with how much the White Fang had taken from her, her family and her business that she could barely see faunus without linking them with the organization, and how much she hated that she was becoming her father by doing so.

She admitted the real reason she wanted to become a Huntress was so that she could not only defend herself, but her company.

She went on about how, as luck would have it, she wound up with not just a faunus teammate, but one who hated her family and, thus, probably her. How she found herself trapped between these two super-happy sisters so close she couldn't even imagine a close connection forming and this brooding faunus who couldn't decide whether or not he was a friend or foe. Not like she wasn't guilty of the same thing: some days she felt like he couldn't be trusted, and other days things were fine. But it wasn't like she liked any of this: this huge back and forth of friendliness and venom between them. All it did was make her feel more alone in her team than she ever was when she was _physically_ alone.

Weiss elaborated on fight after fight after fight with Adam, the last being so bad she just tried to make nice for good. And where did that get her? In the biggest fight yet and now he's told her he wasn't who he says he was. That he'd done terrible things.

She crushed the styrofoam cup in her hand as she recalled how when she was rightfully angry, her so-called 'friends' took his side over her.

She admitted that she didn't want to feel that alone ever again. And she admitted that she still missed them.

It was evening by the time Weiss had finished ranting. Penny had sat perfectly still, politely listening and not so much as saying a word until Weiss was just left breathing heavily and feeling more tired than when she'd walked in.

"Wow! That was a long story! Did you talk to them about it?" Penny asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She blinked in surprise.

"... What do you mean?"

"I don't have friends, but, if I did, I'd want them to talk to me about things! This sounds like an important thing!" Weiss' mouth hung open. Had she tried that? She swore she had, but... besides the 'truce'(if that could really be called talking), there had just been a lot of shouting. Something else clicked in her mind.

"W-wait, what do you mean, you don't have friends? What about your team?"

"Oh! They are ordered to spend time with me!" Weiss blanched; that sounded terrible! Almost as terrible as how she could say that with a smile!

"Well, Penny, you shouldn't lie." Penny stared blankly at Weiss.

"But I..."

"Because you _do_ have a friend, right here!" From Penny's positively ecstatic gasp and how wide her eyes became, Weiss wondered if in her sleep-deprived state she'd accidentally proposed to her, instead. Even so, she smiled: she needed this.

* * *

"I look _sensational!_ " Penny bounced on her heels in front of the mirror in a nearby clothes shop. This girl had gone from being awkward yet always happy to making Ruby look depressed in comparison. She spun around to face Weiss with a sparkling grin. One of the first things Weiss took Penny to do was get her a new outfit: she couldn't even believe that she only had a single outfit! _Ten outfits_ of the same thing, according to her!

Sure, Weiss only really wore her favorite outfit, too, but, she still had others just in case! Like... like...

... Maybe she could pick up this one nice white peacoat and skirt she saw, too.

"What do you think, _friend?"_ Weiss had to hold back a giggle; Penny's eyes were still lighting up every time she did that. Weiss placed her hands on her hips and let her pride show.

"Well, I _am_ the one who helped picked them out." Her white blouse had been changed out for a black, ruffled one with a high collar, and while she couldn't find a dress with the same... interesting strap design—while cute to some, Weiss thought she looked like she came from a farm with that look—for a brighter waist-clencher and skirt the same shade as her eyes with a black stripe running along the bottom and her waist. Weiss hadn't had a clue where Penny even managed to _get_ those black stocking... pants... thing, so, simple, black stockings had to do.

All in all, bar slight alterations, it was more a change in color than appearance, but Weiss wouldn't let any new friend of hers walk around in the same outfit 24/7!

One swipe of her card later and the two were off under the darkening twilight skies of Vale with bags in tow. With it being late on a Sunday and so close to the Vytal Festival, crowds of people from not just Vale but all over the world were walking through the streets. She knew she would have to figure this whole thing out by tomorrow but, for now, Weiss just enjoyed the day. The thoughts of her team, or Adam, or being alone had finally left her head.

"Hey, Weiss, is that your friend?" Penny pointed off into the crowd at an all-too familiar mane of golden hair bobbing through the masses. Weiss took a sharp breath and started trying to tug Penny the other way. She had no such luck: how was this girl so heavy!

"Penny, we should really think about going back—"

"Sal-u-tations, Weiss' friend!" She called out into the crowd. Sure enough, Yang sprung out, distressed and looking like she'd gotten just as much sleep as she had. So much for a day without thinking about this. Weiss sighed and forced a smile.

"Hey, Yang..."

"Weiss! We were so worried about you! Where'd you go? We've been looking for you for hours! You're coming back, right? Who..." Her flurry of questions slowed as she noticed who was standing next to Weiss. "Isn't that the weird girl from a couple days ago?"

"I'm Penny!"

"Yes, she's my new friend, and, really, I'm flattered by the concern, but, I'll have you know that I'm fine, and... you're calling Ruby over, aren't you," Weiss grumbled, for Yang had already pulled her scroll out before she was even half-finished. She smiled sheepishly in return. Weiss just glanced aside and shifted uncomfortably; she still had no plan as to what to do.

"Alright! One down, one to go!" She threw an arm around Weiss, who just grimaced in agitation.

"... Wait, what do you mean, 'one to go'? You didn't manage to lose Ruby already, did you?" Yang looked around nervously and let out a hollow laugh.

"Well, ya see, uh... Adam's... kind of gone missing, too."

"Really?" Weiss had little time to say any more, for Ruby skid to a halt just in front of them, rose petals trailing behind her.

"Awesome job, Yang! We'll have the whole team back together in no time at all! Hi, Penny!"

"Hi, Ruby!" Penny was happy to be noticed.

"Don't we, already?" Weiss asked as an implicit warning: she did not need them looming over this day any longer. Ruby and Yang looked uneasily between another.

"... Not... really," Ruby began, shrinking under Weiss' immediate glare. Yang decided to finish it, for her:

"Adam's gone."

"So?"

" _Gone_ , gone, Weiss. His bag, his weapon, he took everything." Weiss only rolled her eyes.

"Good! That's less trouble for us, you know."

"Come on, Weiss..." Ruby started to complain, only for Weiss to cut her off immediately:

"No! Don't 'come on', me!" Yang snickered. "Oh, grow up! I think I'm doing quite a favor by not just going to the you-know-who about the you-know-what." Weiss crossed her arms under her chest, leering at the two of them.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, but he's still our teammate! We can't just leave him alone like that in the middle of Vale."

"I'm sure he has _plenty_ of friends, out here..." Weiss wanted out of this. It wasn't as bad a meeting as she'd thought, but, she began to wonder if their sleeplessness was from her missing or from _him._ "But... fine. I'll look for him to the west, you girls cover the east. We fan out from here!"

"Penny, wait for me at the room. I'll be there soon."

"Okay, friend!" Penny cheerily exclaimed and skipped away. Not wanting to give Ruby and Yang any time to figure her out, Weiss shuffled off into the crowds just as the streetlights began to flicker on. She needed a place or a person that was _truly_ quiet, somewhere she could think. But for now, all she could do is wander.

* * *

"Good evening, Mister Tukson. I'm looking for _The Third Crusade._ "

* * *

Funny. Weiss didn't expect to find herself all the way back at the docks, or, at least, the shipyard. It was something, at least: now that it was getting late, it was bound to be emptying out. Her eyes followed the smudges and scratches along the side of a warehouse as she strolled along it. Perhaps it was a little bit dirty, but, she could always stay here and just make up a story, maybe even try to get what she was sure would be the first of many good nights' sleep now that Adam was gone. Her expression grew solemn.

 _Where is that fool?_ Weiss told herself she was just worried about him returning to the White Fang, or maybe sleep was trying to pick at her common sense. She shook her head: she just wanted a little longer before she had to face the tense mess she called her team. And right here, where there was just the ambient noise of the city behind her, the soft sound of sea ahead, and unmarked, armed Bullheads towing off precious Schnee Dust Company cargo under the cover of night above, was a perfect place to do so.

... Wait _._

* * *

Thank the Moon, his team was placed as far away from that bastard Torchwick as possible. Sometimes he wondered if he was hiding a rat tail somewhere in that jacket, no offense to his actual rat brethren. As little more than a White Fang grunt, life was often simple, especially in giant operations like these where you were only a single cog in the machine of revolution. In this case, it was one of his simplest missions yet: get out of the Bullhead, hook up a cable, and make sure the police weren't sneaking up on them the entire time.

Easy money for him, easy food for his kid, easy mission for his record, and, most importantly, easy publicity for the White Fang as they orchestrated their biggest dust raid yet.

His ears were finally spared the incessant whine of the Bullhead's turbines once it landed. He and his three subordinates stepped out with him in the lead. He sighed, made sure his mask was on straight, and turned around to face his team. Repeating such simple objectives was a waste of time, but, he was a stickler for procedure.

"Alright, you heard the _boss,_ " He resisted the urge to spit. "Let's get these cables hooked up. We're trying to get at least twelve containers out of here before the police are alerted: that'll be two trips minimum for us, so make it quick!" No response. Curious, he stepped forward.

"Hello? Anyone awake in there? It's not that late, get your heads in the game, the Captain will have your head on a platter if we ruin something this simple!" He leaned back; they were pale. One's mouth was hanging open, one was even trembling. Instincts suddenly screaming that something was wrong, he slowly reached down towards his waist, then snapped around in an instant, blade drawn and ready!

It clattered to the ground.

"M-Major Taurus?"

* * *

 **A/N: As you might be able to see and/or guess, I've toned down some of Adam's more creepy abusiveness to just become a less utterly unsympathetic, standoffish and aggressive person at times.**

 **Two more chapters in Volume 1 remaining! Who's ready for some well-needed fight scenes?**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	16. Traitor

**Traitor** **  
**

* * *

"Don't look so surprised." The masks were not only meant to be a symbol, but to hide the expressions of their users. They could look brave, even at their most frightened. That being said, even through the slits in his own mask Adam could see they looked like they were about to pass out. Pale faces, shaky legs, flapping their lips like fish instead of actually responding. He thought he taught them better. Adam took a step forward, snapping the leader of the four out of his thoughts.

They knew his name. That meant they were his men in particular: suspicious, considering he was the top of the food chain. This operation was sounding far more important, already, than Tukson let on.

"M-Major Taurus, sir! We've been searching for you for months! Were you captured?" The squad snapped to attention and saluted. Adam missed these days.

A sharp wave of his hand dismissed their questions.

"It is none of your concern. Where is your commanding officer?" He needed answers: if the situation had gotten so far that the White Fang needed to make one of the most high-profile raids in Vale's history, either that Torchwick was forming a counter-assault against the White Fang, or they had a plan that necessitated such a huge risk. The issue was, he didn't _recall_ any plans of this magnitude.

The squad shuffled nervously.

"... Torchwick may be a little busy, s-sir." Adam didn't move an inch. He'd misunderstood, clearly. He took a deep breath, and then spoke again.

"Our enemy's actions do not matter to me at this moment. I am asking for your commanding officer." He spoke coldly. The squad backed up nervously from Adam. He could feel his hand drift closer towards his blade.

"Major Taurus, sir... w-we'll call him!" The three underlings looked like the leader just signed their death warrant, but couldn't get the courage to call him out for it as he drew up his Scroll.

"Sir! We found the Major!"

 _"Oh, great, another problem solved right there!"_ Another voice came to life on the other end, heard clearly only because of his faunus hearing. Adam gripped Wilt's handle tighter: it was a voice he hadn't heard, before.

"Shall we bring him to you, sir?"

 _"Oooh, sorry, pup, can't let you do that. We got some new orders from up top. The Major's gotta go."_ The leader paled. Unbeknownst to the four, Adam had clicked open his blade. He did not want to believe that these soldiers had stepped on the White Fangs' ideals so quickly, but, he wanted to be sure.

 _Don't let them betray you, too!_ His hate called to him. Adam grimaced and pushed back his thoughts.

"T-Torchwick, but Lieuten— _Captain_ Almond said to—"

 _"Up-up-up! Remember whose pet you are, pal. Who are you gonna listen to?_ Your _boss, or_ his _boss?"_ He didn't give them the chance to respond: the call ended. Their death sentences signed in duplicate, the squad sat there in befuddled quiet.

"Why are you working for that scum?" Adam asked slowly and carefully. He wasn't in the state of mind to have the organization he was with for ten years and led for three turn against every ideal and goal he and his leadership ever had. He wasn't even sure if that old fool Ghira would have gone so far as to work with human criminals. Adam wasn't in the right state of mind for this... betrayal.

They remained silent. Their hands started to drift to their own weapons.

 _Don't be rash, Adam!_ His heart pleaded with him. Yet, the voice it chose was different, now, taking on not the one who abandoned him, but that who he'd abandoned: Ruby. Adam threw the voice out of his mind in an instant. No! They had left _him!_

He had nowhere to go, now! His team had abandoned him. Blake had abandoned him. Now, even the White Fang, the organization he'd been in since he was naught but a boy, the organization that he helped turn from mere seeds of hatred in Vale into a tree that bore poisonous fruit, had not just abandoned him, but was raising arms against him as well.

Adam had never felt so alone.

Were he calm, Adam would have known he could simply run and find Torchwick without having to resort to killing.

Were he calm, Adam would have noticed how reluctantly the four were raising their weapons.

 _They aren't betraying you, Adam, none of them are!_ His heart's words fell on deaf ears.

But Adam was far from calm. No, now, like a Grimm feasting on negativity, his anger fed upon his grief, swelling until he only saw red and until, instead of former comrades or obstacles to go around, all Adam saw was:

"Disgraces! _All of you!"_ He tore Wilt from its sheath.

 _ADAM!_

And then all was red.

* * *

It wasn't the smartest thing she'd ever done, Weiss admitted to herself, but a combination of stress, insecurity and the ever-so-human desire to just take out her anger out on something made battling a contingent of the White Fang sound like a wonderful idea. They were monsters, and if she didn't stop them, who knows who they would kill with that much Dust?

"What's taking so long, you mutts! If you animals don't get those cables hooked up in the next minute I'll take you back to the pet shop! Move it!" And _that_ must be the leader of the operation: Roman Torchwick. Unmistakable with that white coat and black bowler hat of his. Strange how he didn't look like he had a weapon, Weiss thought, as she peered around the corner of a shipping container at the eccentric crime lord waving his cane around at four White Fang soldiers who started marching off to their next target. It might've been dark, but Weiss couldn't see anyone else. She could, however, hear approximately four more walking atop the containers.

Eight faunus and Torchwick. If Ruby could defeat him without any teachings, someone as well-trained and educated as her would be able to take down Torchwick with ease! Better yet, if she could get him to back down, the others would assuredly surrender themselves. It was just basic tactics, after all, and the perfect time to spring her plan was coming up: the crime boss had just drawn out a Scroll, looking faintly disgruntled at the news from the other side. Alas, if only he'd had his on speaker, then she would _really_ have some good information, Weiss thought.

"Oooh, sorry, pup, can't let you do that. We got some new orders from up top. The Major's gotta go." He paused. Weiss spun her rapier's cylinder until it landed upon red.

"Up-up-up! Remember whose pet you are, now, pal. Who are you gonna listen to? _Your_ boss, or _his_ boss?" With a single flick of Myrtenaster, she fired a dart of flames and lunged forward so swiftly that the point of her blade met Torchwick's back just as the flames destroyed his Scroll.

"... Who the f-" He growled and tried to turn, but that plan was ended as soon as it began by the sharp point of Weiss' blade pushing harder against his aura.

"Don't move. Consider yourself under arrest." She tried to keep her voice as chilling as possible, which left her all the more annoyed when Torchwick chuckled. Not even making an attempt to call his goons, he just glanced over his shoulder trying to get a good sight on his new target and let his cane hang on just a few fingers, putting on an affable, non-hostile appearance.

"And my warranty just ran out on that thing, too. So, what brings you around these parts, little Missy?" Weiss scoffed.

"I think that's a little obvious, don't you think? Tell your friends to put their weapons down and step out where I can see them, _or,_ we can do this the hard way." Myrtenaster pressed harder into Torchwick's back, putting some strain on his aura, but not much more. Unless Weiss wished it, of course, and she was certain Torchwick was a smart enough crime boss to figure that much out.

" 'Friends', funny. I like to think of them as more... employees." There was a hint of recognition in his eye. "And it looks like you do too, don't ya, Schnee?" Screams of panic echoed from afar, behind a large warehouse that blocked their view of the source. Weiss smirked in spite of her growing frustration with Torchwick's attitude; she could use that.

"And _there_ would be my backup. Clock's ticking, _Mister Torchwick._ " She threw a look off towards the warehouse, hoping to get a look at the commotion to make better use of it. The bad news was that she had no such luck, but, the good news was that the other grunts' attention was drawn off towards that direction. Perfect for her to grab Torchwick's coat and start leading him behind the shipping containers she spied him from. Disgruntled, he snatched his cane up just beneath its hook and folded it under his arm.

"Alright, alright! You drive a hard bargain, Princess. Here's my counteroffer." By the time Weiss noticed the cane's tip flip open, it was too late. An explosion launched her backwards from Torchwick and sent her sprawling across the ground. Already, the shouts of alarm had begun: she'd have to fight all of them, now. She wasn't letting the White Fang harm her company again!

* * *

Ruby suddenly jumped up from her chair at a cafe. Something just occurred to her!

"Wait just a minute, Weiss just ran away again, didn't she?!" Yang looked up at her and chugged down the rest of her soda.

"Well, yeah, I told you that an hour ago."

"Sure, but I didn't _believe_ you! We have to find her!" Ruby waved her hands about, starting to panic. Yang, having come to terms with the fact that they'd have to search for Weiss twice ages ago, nonchalantly flipped out her Scroll and passed it over.

"She said she was going west, I already searched up every ritzy hotel nearby for where she might be staying! If Weiss is going to find a hideout, she'd find one with style, I know it."

"Perfect!" Ruby snatched up the Scroll and copied the list to her own. "Let's split up! We'll cover more ground that way!" She'd already ran off in a burst of rose petals before Yang could even respond... or tell her that she'd taken her Scroll, too. Yang sighed and just stared out the window.

She never made note of the faint, black smoke just barely creeping over the rooftops.

* * *

Weiss coughed and rolled up to her feet just in time for a trio of shots to detonate right where she'd just been lying. Of _course_ the cane was a weapon! That was such a rookie mistake, and one she suffered dearly for: Weiss was certain that direct hit blew away a third of her Aura. Torchwick chuckled to himself and spun his cane in his hand.

"You know, Princess, I thought this might draw some attention, but I never knew the SDC would send their own after us! I feel _honored!_ " He punctuated himself by flipping his cane up and firing once more, but Weiss dived behind the shipping containers she once hid behind in a white blur. She was too nimble to be caught by that trick twice!

Deciding to take out the underlings, first, she ran from container to container until three sword-wielding grunts jumped out from atop them to surround her. A rookie mistake on _their_ parts: Weiss pumped her aura into her legs and launched herself rapier-first into the first one. He didn't even have time to respond before Myrtenaster shattered his aura and dug into his uniform. There was nothing the front-most man could do to threaten her, moving at that speed: it was pointless to even try to stop her.

Fortunately for him, Weiss was no killer, and instead used all that momentum to spin on her heels and throw the soldier into another, sending them both to the ground hard enough to knock them both out. Dropping into an defensive stance, Weiss smirked and tauntingly waved the third one forward. He took the bait and rushed forward to engage her, but swordplay was her field: each wild swing was deflected and repaid with a light jab of her rapier. When one swing finally telegraphed itself too much, Weiss twirled Myrtenaster, flung the grunt's blade away and knocked him aside with a single thrust.

She became distinctly aware of two things, now: five more White Fang members creeping across and between the containers around her, and the strange absence of Torchwick. Unfortunately, whereas she had her momentum in the first bout to instantly nullify the White Fang's attempt to surround her, Weiss had no such luck, now.

Not that she needed it.

A spin of Myrtenaster brought her yellow Dust into play, and a glowing glyph in the shape of a rapidly ticking clock spread around her feet. Weiss inhaled, and the world slowed to a crawl: the soft crashing of waves against the docks now became an ever-present roar and hiss, colors diluted, and her perception became unmatched by any student of her year, if not any huntress-in-training at all. A swordsman was cutting off her way forward, another between the containers was making sure she couldn't duck to the side, and one was creeping up behind her. Golden bullets were slowly but surely making their way towards her from a rifleman atop a veritable tower of shipping containers ahead, but the second was mid-jump behind her to the warehouse roof.

Weiss crouched low to the ground, reached her aura out behind the airborne White Fang member, and exhaled. With a mighty leap and an elegant twirl behind her, she summoned a glyph behind the grunt and slammed him against it with her blade. She pressed herself against her platform and turned to find puffs of concrete and smoke rising from her last position, just as she wanted.

Inhale.

The grunts were so slow that they hadn't even realized what happened: their eyes were glued to where the bullets were cracking against the floor. Such a horrid din in slowed time, Weiss thought to herself. Between the turning blades of her glyph, Weiss swore she saw Torchwick bringing in even more support from the White Fang towards her: at least four more grunts. Damn! She'd miscounted!

Weiss exhaled and flipped off of her platform, sending herself flying through the air until she collided with the remaining rifleman and flung him aside like the first poor soul she'd run into.

Inhale.

This was the last time she could pull this off without more dust and glyphs. The four newcomers had just turned around the corner, now. That turned this from a now three-on-one to a seven-on-one, and a fearsome eight if Torchwick decided to jump in. The swordsmen had just woken up, it seemed, for their masks were slowly turning to face her in this diluted world. A single, loud _clang_ broke her from her thoughts. Then another. Then enough to sound like rainfall even in slowed time. Countless bursts of light were springing to life across the stack of containers in front of her. Weiss' eyes nervously darted around to find the source.

Her shocked gasp wasted her final burst of time manipulation.

Three Bullhead VTOLs were racing out from the sea, miniguns raining down death all across the metal boxes.

Weiss haphazardly flung herself between the two towers in a decidedly unladylike manner. The roar of guns and bullets impacting metal and concrete both was deafening, and Weiss used this to her advantage: the swordsman formerly blocking her path out to open ground hadn't heard her land. His comrades didn't hear him get taken down with a swift stab to the back, either.

This wasn't how this was supposed to go! She was supposed to be winning, by now, she was supposed to be stopping the White Fang! What she needed was a plan... and just then, Weiss noticed the powdered Dust beginning to blow out of the countless holes left in their containers by the Bullheads now circling just above her. With so much Dust in the air and on the ground, if a single spark got to all of them, the resulting reaction could clear out the whole area for her! To say her plan was dangerous, however, was an understatement.

Myrtenaster's cylinder was turned back to red just as a spotlight shined down on where Weiss hid between the masses of metal.

But, you didn't become the dorm's poker champion by not taking risks!

* * *

It was a bloodbath.

Adam was nothing more than a blur as he ran for the next squad of four trying to escape to the south. The pillar of rising smoke they were running towards escaped his mind entirely as he fired Wilt handle-first into the back of a grunt's head. By the time the other three had turned around, Adam was there with blade in hand. He whipped one hand out into a pair of slashes that instantly felled two more, and drew Blush with his other to finish off the last.

To his surprise, however, the final grunt was quick enough to raise his blade and block it, but at the cost of his weapon shattering in his grip. Adam graced this one with his gaze as he sheathed Wilt.

"S-so the rumors were true... you are a traitor, Taurus!" He rolled under Adam's next swing, coming up with his felled friend's blade barely in time to block a vicious strike from above. With all his might, he threw Adam back and thrust his blade forward, yet met nothing but air. Running not on training but on instinct, he threw his blade back and dived forward just as a wave of crimson swiped out from behind where his head once was. Flipping over onto his back, his hand frantically reached for something, _anything,_ as Adam prowled towards him.

He gripped his final comrade's pistol and desperately fired at Adam. Each bullet was met by a blood-red blur and the sound of clashing metal. Adam was untouched. He hadn't even seen Adam _move._ With a roar of defiance, the White Fang grunt raised the pistol a last time.

Just to stare in disbelief as it collapsed in halves by the time he'd pulled the trigger. Adam yanked him up by his uniform.

"Where. Is. Torchwick." He growled. The grunt shakily pointed off to a vast set of shipping containers near a warehouse. Bullheads were already getting closer, too: no doubt to help him escape. Adam flung the disgrace aside like trash and raced across the docks at top speed. Two last soldiers attempted to get in his way, but Adam didn't even break his stride, instead grabbing the first and spinning into a high jump before throwing him at the second and peppering them with slashes in mid-air.

He kept Wilt drawn in preparation to block a sudden burst of machine gun fire coming down from Torchwick's vehicles, but, to his surprise, they weren't aiming at him at all. Adam came to a stop not too far away from the battle blocked off by the SDC's towers of shipping containers just as they began to circle around like vultures. But if they weren't shooting at him, who _else_ was here?

Adam decided that question may go forever unanswered when he had to shield his eyes from the chromatic eruption of Dust and fire stretching to the heavens above.

* * *

 _Well, Weiss, you win some, you lose some._

Groaning and laying against the warm steel of a shipping container, Weiss slowly awoke to the sounds of the apocalypse. Entire crates of Dust thrown into the sky crashed into the ground with varying(but usually devastating) effect, a destroyed Bullhead buried itself between what remained of the gap she'd leaped out from with a deafening grind of metal against metal, and a second had already crash-landed between the containers and the warehouse to block the only path further up. Flames crackled and licked at any Dust it could find, spread erratically across the ruins her plan had left behind.

And the _smell._ Paint no doubt mixed with all kinds of hazardous materials, rust, crystallized Dust and Dust fuel all burning mixed together to form a potentially toxic but definitely pungent scent that launched Weiss back into consciousness as if someone shoved her face into a pile of smelling salts. If she weren't so sure of how wonderful a person she was on the inside, she might've thought she'd died and gone right to the deepest pits of the underworld. Her attempts to push herself up to her feet, however, only ended up with her collapsing back onto her rump.

 _At least I'm not wounded..._ Weiss thought as she felt around herself for any signs of more than dirt and grime. Her aura had held up, but it was on its last legs, right now. Were she back at Beacon, being this low would've had her lose a match on the spot.

She'd put too much of her aura into her strike. It was a simple plan: if she sent a strong enough blast into the crates, it'd cause a chain reaction that'd set off at _least_ one container. Anyone with their aura not at maximum capacity would likely be struck down by that alone, including those Bullheads which had none at all. Unfortunately, she underestimated just how much damage that degenerate criminal had dealt to her.

"My, my, Princess, whatever will Papa think of this?" And _speaking_ of degenerate criminals, of course Torchwick would escape the blast. The closest thing to damage he had was that his hat was missing. He was at full strength, and she was decidedly... not. Weiss gritted her teeth and tried to look defiant, but things were looking grim: the combination of shattered crates, destroyed Bullheads and the warehouse left her in a ring of debris with only one path out.

And Roman was standing right there.

Reality was beginning to set in.

"If I hadn't already grabbed the good stuff, I'd be pretty ticked off! Well, I _am,_ but even more so! That little trick of yours cost me my good hat. It was a present, you know, back from when I was in Junior's gang." Weiss wanted to cry in pure rage while Torchwick took his sweet time languidly strolling closer, spinning his cane in one hand with the other in his pocket. All of this just to end up shot by some criminal scum off in a dirty docks, somewhere? No! She gripped Myrtenaster hard enough for the handle to cut into her hand. Low aura or not, she was going to make that rat work for this.

"You know, Princess, usually, I don't kill kids your age, but..." He whistled. "Schnee heiress and Beacon student killed by White Fang in Vale! Police nowhere to be found!" Torchwick brought his cane through the air, following an imaginary news headline.

"I've got friends who'll really love to hear that so, sorry, Princess. Today just wasn't your day." Torchwick sighed with false sadness, flicked up the sights of his cane, and aimed down at her. Just a little longer, Weiss thought! She just needed a little more time to recover! For once, all she wanted from someone was for them to _keep_ talking!

"Don't I... get any last words?" For a moment, Weiss she saw a hint of sympathy in his eyes. He shrugged.

"You just did."

He pulled the trigger.

* * *

 **A/N: Unfortunately, still, not much will be changing from here on in.  
**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	17. Black and Weiss

**Black and Weiss**

* * *

Starting from when he was naught but a boy, Adam could predict the flow of his anger: he would keep everything pent up for as long as he could and shoulder the pain, but, no matter how long he would try to do so, there would always be the straw that broke him. Then, in a single burst, it'd all come flooding out.

And then reality would drown him and his anger both in a bucket of ice water. Like a thief in the night, his wrath would abandon his mind and leave him alone with whatever consequences it had caused and a sinking feeling in the pit of his heart. Often, it would return shortly after, planting the seed to restart the process all over again, but, in grave situations, Adam would be left with only guilt and fear over his actions. It was fitting, really, considering his Semblance: to take abuse constantly only to throw every last bit back in a single, all-encompassing blow.

The icy cold of guilt never truly left Adam, but he had learned to ignore its pleading just as he ignored his heart. Indeed, it was when he learned to do so, Adam thought, that he'd finally descended into the abyss.

It was now that Adam was faced with that once more, and without any other enemy nearby to refocus his wrath upon. Even as his legs carried him in a dead sprint towards the source of the chromatic explosion, every drop of blood resting on Wilt's crimson surface felt like a weight on his hand. 'Disgraces' or not, they were still his soldiers that he'd slain. Soldiers he may have trained, may have even known at some point, blown away like wilting petals in the wind. So much time as a student had left him soft: he couldn't ignore the guilt, this time.

The only reason he was alive, after all, was because Blake did not make the same mistake he had just made: believing bloodshed would solve all problems.

Adam was almost thankful when he caught a Bullhead's attention. He distracted his guilt and focused on the task at hand: he was nearing the multi-colored containers, now, where flames and wreckage both created a solid wall of carnage. Adam knew that rat Torchwick was inside: the Bullhead and a second one were circling, yet refusing to fire down, clearly out of fear of hitting something—or someone—important.

Zig-zagging his way closer, Adam heard and felt the hundreds of bullets impacting the ground behind him from the Bullhead's mighty gun all the way up until he curled his legs in and sprung to the top of the shipping containers. His foot slammed into the edge of the topmost one, already prepared to launch him further, with a resounding bang sounding far too loud to be from a step alone. His gaze dropped down to look for the source of the sound and, in a manner all too similar to the Schnee's time dust's effects, time slowed to a crawl.

The din had come from Torchwick, orange hair disheveled and hat missing as he stood on the far side and only exit of the steel ring, but no other sign of damage on him. Light was still pouring from his cane's barrel, and a glow barely obscuring the deadly Dust shell was making its way at a snail's pace towards the target: Schnee. She looked like a mess, slumped up against a dented shipping container bearing her own family name: her hairpin was shattered, slight tears and burns were clear across her clothes, but she didn't look hurt. Her grip on Myrtenaster was tight: she planned to fight? The Schnee barely looked like she could stand!

Adam found himself with two choices and a rapidly ticking clock in this state of mind where every thought took up precious time. Already, the shell was a quarter of the way between them.

He could propel himself to Torchwick in an instant and take advantage of his lack of perception to deal a potentially deadly blow. Even if he were to survive the first strike, the second and third would no doubt take his life. Schnee would likely die, or be gravely injured, yes, but, she chose her path.

Or he could leap in the way of the shell and block it: his aura could save him from deadly injury but he knew not about the Schnee. Adam would lose the element of surprise, however, he would...

Would what, exactly? What would he gain from it? If anyone asked, he wouldn't even have been able to make it to her in time, no one would blame him. No one would know, even if he didn't run away. If anything, he would gain another enemy in this battle, and yet...

Answers took rational thought.

Rational thought took time. The shot was halfway to Weiss, now. Adam already felt himself begin to tip over the edge of the tower of shipping containers. He needed to make a decision entirely on instinct: the instinct of a revolutionary, a student, a murderer, a friend, a terrorist, a member of RWAY, and an officer of the White Fang.

Three-quarters of the way.

Adam jumped.

* * *

When the explosion washed out Weiss' sight, once more, she found herself wondering if she had perished.

"Oh, great, _another_ one!" The grating sound of Torchwick's complaining alleviated her of that brief fear: Weiss severely doubted the two of them would end up anywhere near each other in the afterlife. Her eyes slowly readjusted themselves, but the world for now was still blurry and bright even at night: the fires creeping along the sides of this arena were almost blinding, Torchwick was nigh-on invisible other than a smudge of orange, and the person who apparently saved her was only a shapeless, black and red mass. Crimson extended from what looked like an arm, and Weiss could faintly smell... roses mixed in with the fumes.

She gasped and managed a smile as the world all rushed back to her at once, not even trying to hide how grateful she was that Ruby had managed to save her. At least, now, Weiss could feel safe in admitting to herself that she was actually starting to become afraid for a moment.

Wait...

Adam slowly sheathed Wilt, his crimson aura flickering briefly from the impact, but not breaking just yet. That pale, Grimm-like mask turned back to look at her, and Adam murmured something inaudible to her with a snarl. Weiss' shoulders slumped and Myrtenaster threatened to roll out of her grip as her smile twisted into a grimace.

Scratch that, death was feeling perfectly fine to Weiss right about now.

* * *

"Ha! So let me get this straight: Princess over there was not _just_ telling the truth about backup, but she managed to have her own pet White Fang officer doing her dirty work? Man, and I thought they were slipping on their morals when they rang me up!" Torchwick mocked Adam relentlessly and let his cane-gun rest its tip on the ground. His smile only faded when he got no response at all.

"I see. You're still dazed, then." Adam spoke to no one in particular and turned towards Torchwick. He was glad to feel that seed of hatred growing again: it kept him focused. Torchwick leaned forward on his cane and waved Adam on with a look of agitation.

"Come on, kid, this is the part where you snarl and growl and say something you think is cool but really—" Torchwick didn't have the chance to finish that sentence before Adam rushed forward and slammed his shoulder into the crime boss, forcing him a step back. Adam viciously tore Wilt from Blush and slashed at his neck, but Torchwick regained his footing faster than he thought, and fired his cane for the momentum to carry it up in his hand high enough to clash and send him back. Smirking, he swung down just in time to hook Blush and knock it aside just as Adam fired it.

The sheer speed of the crime lord's left hook when he sheathed his blade came as a surprise to Adam, catching him in the chin. He rolled with the punch and spun along Torchwick's arm to leave him at his side. Adam smirked upon seeing Torchwick's eye widen in that brief moment: he knew how open he'd become. Mid-twist, he'd already drawn Wilt, and the slash along the little rat's back sent him stumbling over to the Schnee's right. The slumped girl only silently glared up at the criminal with ice-blue eyes that could freeze the flames themselves.

He crouched down and began to move forward when Torchwick snapped his cane up to point at Weiss's head. She silently glared up at the criminal, simmering in her rage.

"Up-up-up! Careful there, Red Bull, if you came this far for her, I'm gonna guess you wouldn't be too happy if—" Adam briefly caught a smirk from Weiss and felt her aura surge: she was waiting for this moment. She spun and stabbed her rapier down right into Torchwick's boot and, ignoring the girly scream that ensued, jumped up to her feet and kicked him in the stomach against the steel container. There were no words, let alone an alliance, shared between Adam and Weiss, but he followed it up by firing Wilt right between Torchwick's eyes.

With a surreal, golden glow and faint sound of clocks turning, Torchwick managed to fire at the ground, throwing him away from Adam just as he grabbed onto his blade and slashed up the entirety of the steel box as if it were butter. He whipped Blush behind his back with his other hand and fired half the clip at him, forcing Torchwick into spinning his cane to deflect them. Mere spins of his cane turned to an intricate dance as Weiss nimbly circled to his flank, leaving him to twirl and keep his attention both on the weak yet determined girl thrusting constantly at his chest and the mad faunus' lightning-fast swings that left gashes across the shipping container with every deflected swing.

Powdered red dust began to pour and scatter across the ground from the container's countless nicks and holes. Torchwick smirked: he had a plan... well, he stole one. Pivoting on his ankle the moment the glow faded, he suddenly spun around and simultaneously mule kicked Adam backwards into one Bullhead wreckage and blasted Weiss with Melodic Cudgel into the jagged metal of a second. The Schnee groaned as she pushed herself out: she was right back to square one on her aura level, now.

Though his precious Melodic Cudgel was adorned with just as many gashes and scrapes as the container behind him, and Torchwick's breath came heavy and quick, he laughed, put his back against the wall and lit himself a cigar.

"You kids don't think a single round's going to put me down that quick, do you? Come on! You can do better than that!" Just as he planned, the two lunged out in unison, a crimson blade half-buried in steel coming from one side, a silver streak coming in from the other. Torchwick kicked off the container with all his might, spun in midair and, with a wink to the two suckers, flicked his cigar to them.

"Catch~" As one, their eyes dropped towards the Dust not just on the ground, but now spreading in the air behind Adam's slash. Weiss recognized exactly what Torchwick was doing: that rapscallion stole her scheme! But if Torchwick thought she was going to be the only one in the blast while he jumped to a safer distance, he had another thing coming: spinning Myrtenaster's Dust cylinder to purple in the split-second before the cigar hit the ground, she pushed her Aura to its limits and pulled. A glyph began to form on Torchwick's chest, gravity began pulling him towards the incoming explosion—

And she was shoulder-checked clean into another container by Adam, shattering her concentration. The reaction was a lot smaller than the one she'd sparked, erupting out only a few feet in a blinding array of color and elements. Torchwick was only dragged to its edge: Adam was the one who received the brunt of the blast, thrown just beside Weiss. His mask had a hairline fracture in it, now, barely visible across the two eye slots on his left. Torchwick skidded to a halt in the center of the ring and gritted his teeth: this was getting too close for comfort, already: he was low on ammo, getting low on aura and out of stolen time from that yellow Dust crystal. His eyes flicked up to the circling Bullheads: where was Neo when you needed her!

* * *

Ruby sprinted across the final building between her and the warehouses of the docks fast enough to leave a trail of rose petals in her wake. She didn't even know if that huge explosion was from Weiss or Adam or anyone else she knew, but what she _did_ know was nothing that explosive could mean anything good! She glanced over her shoulder to see if her new partner was able to keep up: Ruby had qualms about Penny joining her after literally running into her outside one of those fancy-pansy hotels, but, after seeing her sprinting behind her without breaking a sweat, Ruby was assured she'd be safe. Maybe.

Penny grinned and waved to her. Ruby just smiled back.

She did seem awfully innocent, though...

The two took the last leap onto the warehouse roof, and could already both hear and see the hovering Bullheads around the supposed source of all this madness. Ruby rolled on her landing and sprung back up with her Crescent Rose fully unfolded and ready for combat. Both girls found themselves stopping short soon after. There was a new girl that they hadn't seen there, before.

Shorter than even Ruby with hair the color of strawberry and chocolate with vanilla streaks, a white and pink jacket, black gloves, and short brown corset underneath with matching pants, she briefly mistook her for another student. She daintily spun a pink parasol on her shoulder, just staring silently at the two with a curious smile, particularly at Ruby. Yet, upon staring into those pink and brown eyes, something felt off to her: this girl felt way too deadly to be someone from just another Academy.

"Can I... help you?" The mysterious ice cream girl brought a finger to her lips and shook her head with a devious smirk. Ruby narrowed her eyes.

"Riiight... Look, there's something I kinda have to get to, so... uh, bye?" Ruby took a hop, skip, and tried to fly past the newcomer with as much speed as she could muster.

She didn't expect to get caught, let alone by having the end of a parasol slammed into her stomach.

* * *

 _Probably off getting ice cream on crime company time..._ Torchwick paused. The docks had grown rather quiet. Rather, he noticed that he hadn't been punched in the face or had a Dust-infused blade jammed into his back in a few seconds. What was up with that?

"I had that handled, you cretin!" Weiss spat at Adam while she found her stance once more. Adam scoffed as he took his place beside her and placed his hand on his blade. A thought occurred to him... Torchwick looked like a dramatic fellow, maybe he'd hold still if there was a little drama going on. At least, that's what he told himself as the words were already escaping his mouth.

"I did not know 'handled' meant 'one second away from dying'." He dryly retorted, his sight hidden from Torchwick. As far as he knew, whereas Weiss was focused on Adam, he was still focused on every move he made. The Schnee's cheeks grew red with rage. _Perfect._

"And I don't know if I ever called for your help or not!" She seethed.

"Then feel free to die once we're done. You'll be doing the world a favor."

"Fitting words for a violent barbarian like you. At least I'd be missed." Adam popped his neck. And suddenly, that 'plan' excuse flew out the window.

"By whom? I bet your own family wouldn't even be on that list!"

Torchwick's eyes bounced from one arguing teen to another. He was certain he heard police sirens, but those stupid Vale cops wouldn't dare step close to here while those Bullheads were up. Still, were they really doing this, right here and now? There's no way. No one's _that_ stubborn. This just _had_ to be some kind of trick, right? He started to raise Melodic Cudgel, and their bickering stopped immediately. Just his luck.

Adam pointed Wilt right at him. The ex-major's hair and the crimson designs on his clothes were beginning to glow. Torchwick was getting a bad feeling about this.

"You! What did you do to get the White Fang to betray their ideals!"

"Why, I just offered them a deal, that's all! Consider this a... joint-business venture. They want one thing, we want the same!"

 _"How much Dust can you use right now?"_ Adam hissed to Weiss as if their argument had never happened, earning a scowl from her. Her tactical mind wouldn't let her waste potential advantages, though:

 _"Enough."_

"You _humans_ aren't so foolish as to work with the organization that wants you wretched beasts destroyed: do not play dumb with me, Torchwick, what's the _real_ reason they're doing this!" It was a stalling measure and nothing more: Adam already knew someone like him wouldn't talk. Not without a little... motivation.

"Oh-ho-ho, my boss barely qualifies as that... but that's enough talk, don't you think?" Torchwick's eye lit up as he pointed the Melodic Cudgel at Weiss. He'd caught on.

 _"When you see an opening, strike me with the strongest blast you've got."_ Weiss gritted her teeth at being commanded by Adam of all people, but forced a jagged, vicious smirk at the thought. She didn't question _why_ she had to attack him: she didn't really need a reason.

When Torchwick fired, they broke in different directions, Weiss focusing only on gathering up her remaining strength, Adam banking around to Torchwick's side and swinging Wilt up from below. He put every ounce of speed and agility into his assaults as he could, focusing less on striking Torchwick and more on simply confusing him. Adam was astounded, however, as that yellow glow wrapped over Torchwick, and every swing and shot was deflected or parried by what should have just been some rather influential criminal. Each time he'd dart to another side so quickly as to only leave a blur of black and red, Torchwick would be right there to force him into another clash.

Weiss gave no verbal warning when the time came: a spear of bright-red flame shot forth from her rapier just as their foe stepped between her and Adam to counterattack. Believing he'd tricked them, Torchwick slid to the side and right out of its path. He raised his cane and added his own shot to the deadly force, assured in his victory. Adam began to unsheathe his blade once more and... stood there ready for both.

It was at this point that Torchwick realized he'd been had.

"Neo! Neo, we need to get out of here!" The explosion of fire and dust lasted for nary half a second before it all swirled into Adam's blade, turning that dim glow of aura into a burning light. His glow having faded, Torchwick aimed again, his focus entirely drawn on Adam, but not the heiress he argued with, leaving him open for a glyph-propelled stab to his side. He spun to get a lock on Weiss, but she was already gone, only the faint, golden image of a spinning clock left in her place before he was struck again in a blur of white. The crime lord decided to focus his fire on Adam, instead.

He paled. Adam was nothing more than a flicker of light in the corner of his eyes wherever he turned: Torchwick was fast, but he wasn't _that_ fast. His thoughts were interrupted by another stab blasting him into the scorched container he'd set aflame with far more force than a rapier should have carried. Finally, he caught sight of Weiss: her long, snow-white hair flowing freely without its hairpin and the frozen fury in her eyes left her looking like an angered sorceress. Fitting, for she thrust her rapier into the ground and unleashed a wave of ice freezing his lower body in place.

Precisely as Adam finally came into view in the air above him, radiating aura in a bloody glow.

 **"Neo!"**

* * *

Above, Neo flipped and spun herself between a constant flurry of blades and scythe swings alike, not even throwing a blow of her own until one of them attempted to escape. She stopped moving for the first time in her little bout with Ruby and Penny just on the edge of the warehouse roof and winked at them. Seeing her chance, Ruby slammed down her scythe and took a shot.

Neo shattered into glass.

* * *

 _ **"Disappear."**_ For the briefest moment, Adam could have sworn he'd seen someone else amidst the ice, a girl in pastel reflected infinite times amongst its shining surface.

Adam took all of his hatred, his rage, every bit of indignation and wrath he'd gathered in this night, every scratch and blast to his Aura, every blow he had deflected and **swung** : his blade made a single sweep in front of him. All that it so much as touched disintegrated and faded not to dust, but to a whirlwind of darkening rose petals. The wreckage of the Bullheads, the shipping containers, the ice, even a passing Bullhead, all were erased in an instant invisible to all but Adam in the blinding blaze of crimson.

Just as quickly as the world was dyed red, Adam landed, sheathed his blade, and all was normal. Adam slowly stood in the storm of petals while they lasted. It was done. Torchwick was dead.

"Adios, kids! Please forget to write!"

Or not.

Adam whipped around to find Torchwick and the same girl he'd seen riding off in a Bullhead far and fast out of sight. The second followed close behind. Adam stood there in stunned silence, only moving to turn to the gash cut practically in the fabric of reality itself: entire containers now looked as if someone had just brought a pencil eraser to them, their edges tinged with rust and decay. The Bullhead wreckage simply did not exist. Even the ground had a perfectly smooth-edged gash stretching in a circle where their obstacles once were.

"It was a nice light show, at least." From how soft her voice was, Adam wasn't sure if Weiss was just trying to tease him or actually mock him.

The police arrived seconds later.

* * *

Hiding his horns under Torchwick's bowler hat—a souvenir, he decided to call it—Adam sat in a circle with Ruby, Weiss and Penny as police officers scurried about the scene trying to preserve what they could and paramedics carrying off bodies. To say the mood was tense would have been a grave understatement. Bar a few lackluster attempts by Penny or Ruby trying to break the ice, they'd remained completely silent. Adam's eyes stayed locked onto the bodies being carried away even after they were taken off the scene. Without combat or anger to guide him once more, all Adam had was his thoughts.

Weiss' eyes fell onto Adam as he stared off at the ambulances driving off.

"The attacker at the warehouse... Was that you?" Her voice brought Adam's gaze to hers.

"Ruby! Weiss! Adam! ... Other girl! I was so worried about you, I heard what happened, is everyone alright!" Yang all but sprinting towards them and tackling Ruby into a desperate hug ended that conversation before it began, but Weiss had her answer. It was in plain sight, inside those hollowed, emerald orbs.

"I'm fine, sis, really!" Ruby squeaked out just as the tension in the air struck Yang.

"Are you sure? Because it looks like someone died."

 _"Actually sis that's me if-you-don'tletgo!"_ She took a big gulp of air as Yang finally let her drop back down onto her crate. Soon, Ruby, Yang and Penny's eyes were on Weiss and Adam. The former looked like she'd been through Hell and back: her aura had dropped low enough for her skirt and blouse to be torn and burnt in several spots, her normally pristine hair hung around her face like it did before she went to bed, and light bruises were still being healed by her recovering aura. The latter looked better, but not by much: bangs of his red hair hung in front of his face, now, his clothes were disheveled from the fighting, and Ruby's keen eyes could catch the tiredness in his eyes and occasional tremble in his hands.

Adam closed his eyes and sighed after a few seconds of silence between them.

"I suppose they're waiting on us, then."

"What's there to say that we already haven't?" Bitterness dripped from Weiss' voice. Adam only shrugged: he hadn't planned on getting this far. The sound of detective work remained for seconds longer. After it was clear Weiss had no intentions to continue speaking, he let out a ragged sigh.

"... You were right," Adam growled: it physically pained him to say that. "It was the White Fang committing these robberies... and... it should also be clear that my 'sympathies' are drying up fast." He finally opened his eyes and turned to Weiss. Her own were downcast.

"... My turn, then. _You_ were right: the Schnee name is tainted by my company... but, as heiress, it is going to be my job to fix that, for humans _and_ faunus." She furrowed her brow. "I don't agree with my father on a lot of things." Ruby and Yang's eyes gleamed: were they finally connecting? Was this war _finally_ over?

"But that doesn't mean I can forgive the things you've done to my family." Adam's eyes imperceptibly narrowed.

"Nor can I forgive what your family has done to the faunus," He warily replied. The two sisters slumped down. The two warring students glanced away from one another, as if sensing they'd come to an impasse. They simply didn't have the adrenaline left in them to fight any longer.

"... I propose a peace treaty," Adam suggested with mirthless humor. Weiss arched an eyebrow.

"Oh, because the _truce_ worked so well."

"That is why this is a _peace treaty._ I..." He sighed. "I promise I will not lump you in with your family and treat you as such. In return, I request you not lump all faunus—myself included—with the White Fang... and I also request that you try to forget my 'sympathies.' " Weiss' nose crinkled in disgruntlement.

"I thought I said I won't forgive what you've done."

"I never said to _forgive,_ I said to try and _forget._ " He dug through his mind for the right words until Ruby quietly piped up:

"... Start fresh? You're trying to do good now that you left your 'old life,' " She pointed to Adam, then Weiss. "And you want to make your family less... evil, right? Sticking to the past isn't going to solve anything..." Ruby sadly smiled to the two.

"I came here for a second chance to do right. Something tells me, Weiss, that's the reason you're here, too." Her silence was all the answer Adam needed. He looked down at his gloved hands, then reached one out to Weiss.

"So. What do you say? I'm Adam Taurus, no relation to the Major, I guess I'm your new teammate." He cracked a smirk. Weiss looked over at Adam for a time, trying so hard to push the image of his mask replacing his face and his hands coated in blood out of her mind. Slowly, she took Adam's hand.

"Weiss Schnee. No relation to the Schnees. Likewise. A little odd for Professor Ozpin to wait this late to add team members, isn't it?" The two were silent for a moment. Quiet chuckles built up in the both of them that threatened to turn to laughter.

Neither wanted to admit to the relief they felt.

"Yeah! Team RWAY's back together!" Ruby cheered and threw her arms out. "Come on, group hug, huh? Huh?"

"Don't push it," Weiss and Adam dryly replied. Yang took the offer, at least!

"... Hey wait a minute, where's Penny?"

* * *

In an unmarked, black car, Penny stared on at the team, and wondered why she was ever programmed to feel alone. In the seat across from her, Ironwood's secretary sighed.

"You gave us quite a scare, Penny, disappearing for three entire days." Penny hung her head in shame.

"I'm sorry, Mister Soliel." He looked down on her with sympathy, and waved his hand to bring Penny's attention to his smiling face.

"You'll be free soon, Penny, trust me. Just give us time."

The car pulled away.

* * *

"Aha! Before I forget! Yoooou owe me 20 lien! Oh! So does Jaune and Pyrrha!" Ruby groaned as Yang swung an arm around her shoulders. Adam, having tuned out of the conversation to instead fall into his thoughts—or, brooding, as Ruby called it—glanced up at the two and sighed.

"Dare I ask what for?" Yang had nothing short of a Cheshire grin.

"Weeeell, about two weeks after you showed up, I bet Ruby 20 lien that you had a dark evil past." Adam's jaw hung slack.

"... Excuse me?"

"Would you believe Jaune made the same bet without me even mentioning it? I just threw it in the pile, really." Yang continued on as if Adam had never even asked a thing. He rubbed his temples and just decided to come out with it:

"You said two weeks after I _joined._ How?" Ruby sighed as Yang only got more smug.

"Well, I mean, come on! The red hair, the glowy-red eye thing," Yang started.

"Black and red clothes, the brooding," Ruby continued.

"The red _sword_ too, _seriously_ there's so much brooding..." Yang kept piling it on.

"The horns," Weiss reluctantly added. "N-not being a faunus!" She quickly clarified. "Just the _horns._ " Adam just looked between the three of them as they just kept going down the list of how half of his aspects pointed to him having been evil at one point. And they'd gotten it _right._ Just from that.

The girls stopped when Adam growled at them. But, after a second, it clicked that it wasn't that at all, no, it was actually a _real chuckle_ building up from his very core. It wasn't even that funny, to him, but, on top of the recent events, it was just the straw that broke the camel's back. Something _nice_ happened for the first time in days and his mind latched onto it as if it'd been months. A mere chuckle turned into the first truly genuine laugh he remembered having _in_ months, loud and full of energy he had never shown them.

Maybe it was hearing _Adam_ of all people laughing that finally brought the whole weekend and the future after into context for Weiss. What kind of weird irony was it that her teammate for four years was one of her former worst enemies? Confirmed and secured by the two taking out a _human crime lord_ ordering around a bunch of _extremist faunus_? All the stress and relief alike came pouring out of Weiss as she joined Adam in laughter.

Finally glad to have her team truly unified, Ruby's giggles mixed in, almost drowned out by Yang getting a laugh both at her own list, and ust how evil Adam's real laugh sounded.

For the first time, RWAY felt like a true team.

For the first time, Weiss didn't feel alone surrounded by others.

For the first time, Adam felt like he belonged. He'd never felt so stupid before for choosing his past over his present. He'd never felt so stupid, having once chosen the White Fang over them.

* * *

Far from the docks, Adam's mask reached its final resting place, nestled down on the sea floor.

* * *

 **A/N: Going to take another weeklong break, and then we'll get ourselves started with Volume 2.  
**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome!**

 **(And for those wondering what Neo was doing there; she was** ** _invented_** **post-Volume 1, so, I decided that she'd probably be waiting in the wings at least for if anything truly went wrong. Like being about to get ganged up on by four Huntresses-in-training and/or obliterated by Adam's Semblance.)**


	18. Meanwhile

**Meanwhile**

* * *

"Get out! All of you, go on, get!" Torchwick waved his cane around and stood tall, a figure of strength even to human-hating faunus like the White Fang as they shuffled out of the warehouse now loaded with shipping containers. Indeed, he looked proudly upon his work... right up until the final White Fang member left, and he was left collapsing onto his cane, barely able to hold himself up. Note to self: Beacon students, no joke! Swallowing his pride, he let Neo lead him over to his desk overlooking a map of Vale.

"Yeah, I know. That could've gone way better than it did, trust me, short stack, I know." The crime lord instinctively brought his hand up to adjust his hat, only to find nothing but orange hair. He cursed to himself: he never got the chance to pick it up. Grumbling, Torchwick put a cigar between his lips, reached into his pocket, and promptly remembered that his lighter was somewhere on those docks, too.

Torchwick cursed louder.

Neo, however, the perfect sidekick in every way—as long as he didn't use that particular term—was nice enough to have a spare on her. Taking a drag, he brought his eyes across their catch: six shipping containers. It was a fine haul for a crime lord like him, but an unimaginable one for most criminals. Yeah, he could afford to take a little break.

"Hey, Neo! I think it's about time to break out the stash!" She skipped away to get the only thing the two of them needed for a real celebration.

... Odd, she sure was taking a while. Torchwick blew out a ring of smoke and sighed. That probably meant—

"How very disappointing, Roman..." That sickly-sweet, seductive voice slithered out from behind him. He turned his gaze behind him to see his boss step so casually out of the shadows with a swing in her hips and an almost unearthly smooth stride. Her two enforcers all but glided in behind her. Torchwick never bought that act for a moment: personalities like hers got word to spread real quick, and he hadn't heard a thing about her before she swept in.

Cinder Fall was just as much a mystery as she was agitating. Neo waved over at him with a devious little smirk from behind the three. So much for a perfect sidekick!

"Only six containers... we expected so much more from you." Her two enforcers, some smug-looking teen in all gray and black and another with minty-green hair who looked like she was going to the club with how little those straps she called a top were barely covering her chest and not a bit of her midriff, took seats on either side of him at his table. A basic intimidation tactic, no doubt because he wasn't even looking at dear Cinder while he spoke.

"Who, moi? I think I did just fine, especially with those mutts you had me petsit the entire time. Maybe if you got me some better help, you'd have gotten a better payout." Torchwick shot back with a cocky smirk. Cinder must've taken exception to that, for when she placed her hand on his shoulder, it felt like he was leaving it up against metal on a hot summer day. He fought the urge to grunt.

"You seem awfully pleased in your failure to capture the Dust that I demanded, Roman. Do you think you know something that we do not?" Cinder slowly dragged her fingers up his neck, then forcibly turned his head to face her. Torchwick enjoyed her eternal, sly smile fade into annoyance when he smirked.

"But of course, my dear, _I_ know that I got the only one that mattered. You might be keeping me in the dark on your little schemes, but I'm not stupid, Cinder. I know what kind of Dust you're looking for..." He made it a point to tap out the ashes onto the gray one's shoe. Torchwick rose up to his feet coincidentally right when he kicked the chair out from under him. Hiding his aches the best he could, he waved off to one container laying off on its own.

"Why don't you take a look..." Cinder and her goons looked between one another before, with a nod from their dear leader, the two went and opened it. It was almost empty, only carrying a few armored crates chained down to keep them from moving. Even as Cinder brought her flames around her hand and Neo surreptitiously slipped by closer to him, Torchwick held his pleasant smirk. The gray one kicked away the chains of one and brought over the case, his minty partner having nabbed another. Opening one flooded the room with golden light, opening the other infused it with a brilliant purple.

The minty one caught on quick, taking a step back in surprise. Cinder, however, kept that smooth persona on all the while, never breaking it for a moment while she wandered over.

"Hmm... I take it back, Roman. I'm impressed. _Very_ impressed..." She picked up a yellow Dust crystal from one, and one violet like the night sky as from the other. The crates were full of them: more lightning and gravity Dust than could ever be procured from mere shops. Nodding more to herself than anyone else in the room, Cinder turned to Roman and Neo with a knowing smile.

"So, what do you want to know?"

* * *

The walk back to Vale's airport was filled with worried phone calls and assurances. One of these was going on right now, in fact, with Yang and Ruby both sharing a phone in front of them promising their father that they were alright, honest. News spread fast, Adam supposed. He and Weiss were left strolling behind them in a silence that walked a line between relief and awkwardness. Adam had a feeling that once the events and revelations truly settled in, moments like this would become all too uncommon.

That simple quiet between them was broken by the incessant buzzing of a Scroll. Weiss groaned as she drew it out for the fourth time during their walk, and did the same thing she'd done each time: check the name, sigh, and just drop it back into her pocket. This time, he'd gotten a good look at just who was calling so often: Father. Their eyes briefly met, but not a word was spoken on that matter.

"You don't look half-bad with your hair down," Adam idly commented as the two sisters laughed over some joke he wasn't paying attention to. Weiss arched an eyebrow and suppressed a chuckle.

"Is that your idea of a compliment?" Weiss playfully nudged him. He was about to comment when Yang suddenly poked her head into their conversation; it looked like their call was over.

"Am I missing out on some post-battle flirting?~" With derisive snorts and rolls of their eyes, the two more stoic teammates did not even grace that with a response. "Aw, come on, you two, I got another bet I need to win!" Yang's teasing was only interrupted by yet another insistent ring. Weiss furrowed her brow and patted at her pocket, Yang checked hers and shrugged. Ruby still had hers out, so, surely, it couldn't have been her. She suddenly jumped up upon remembering something:

"Oops! I forgot, I found your Scroll behind Weiss' bed!" Ruby tossed his Scroll to him. Sure enough, it was the one ringing.

"Oooh, left it there after something?" While Weiss grumbled something unintelligible with an embarrassed flush of pink on her cheeks, Adam did not make the mistake of rising to Yang's insinuations. Instead, he opened his Scroll and decided to busy himself with the apparent request for a video call. He'd been gone for a while, maybe the news of the docks attack had spread to Beacon already—

 _"... Adam?"_ The Scroll nearly dropped from his hand. Frozen in place at the sound of that familiar voice and sight of that unforgettable face, Adam found the name falling from his lips before he could even think:

"Blake?"

* * *

 **END VOLUME 1  
**


	19. V2: Aftermath

**A/N: Quick note in RSoB, Beacon's school year likely begins in March and ends in November. Rather than our winter break, they have a summer break. With that said, welcome to:  
**

* * *

 **VOLUME TWO  
**

* * *

 **Aftermath**

In the wake of the raid on the Schnee Dust Company's emergency shipment to the Kingdom of Vale, considered one of the largest robberies of its kind, Vale had seen better days. Desperation pushed its constituents to their limits, poverty became all too easy to sink into, and crime lurked around every corner. It was in this environment that two mighty factions thrived: the Torches, one of the most ruthless gangs anywhere besides Mistral, led by its charismatic leader Roman Torchwick, and the White Fang, the all too well-known terrorist organization or revolutionary force, depending on who you ask. Between them lay the majority of Vale's Dust: if you wanted it, in time, you would have to turn to one of them.

Little did the kingdom know, both factions were working together. Neither did the majority of their forces.

Such was why eight White Fang goons, all in their signature black, long-sleeved hoodies and sleeveless, white jackets, were currently carrying off crates of Dust and lien stolen from a Torch safehouse in the night, leaving it burning as a message to all those who got in the White Fang's way. Walking in alleys only by the oranges and reds of the inferno behind them, the team laughed and joked of the praise they would surely receive: to take an entire safehouse without a single casualty lost to those dirty humans was no small feat.

All the while, they were unaware of how they were watched from above.

A sharp cry the end of their line made their celebrations decidedly premature. Crates of loot dropped to the ground as they spun around as one to face their attacker. Nothing. Just a broken box laid there, not even the body of the one who cried out.

"Some of the Torches must've survived! Fan out and find who did this!" They didn't have to search for long: the perpetrator dropped right in the middle of them as a mass of black. The closest two drew blades and swung out, but their foe shattered one's arm with a single kick and swept the other's legs out from beneath him. Gunfire tore through the air, raining upon their mystery opponent and forcing him to leap backwards off of the walls towards the flames and draw his own weapons: a simple pair of short-barreled rifles. Whereas their bullets only found the stone of walls and ground, their foe's two shots each struck their targets, flooring a pair of gunmen instantly as he landed with his guns pointed at the others.

One versus four, five including the one whose arm was broken. In this brief moment of calm, the White Fang could see their opponent. He looked all too familiar: it was their own uniform, albeit entirely in black, all the way down to the mask, which held the dimly glowing, green lenses of a lower officer rather than the more common eye slits. A face mask over his jaw hid any defining features. Was this some kind of traitor to the cause?

The figure waved them on with its rifles, and two rushed him at once with their blades, turning into a dazzling frenzy of unpredictable slashes coming high and low. Each and every one, however, was deflected or dodged with only minimal movement. With a final missed swing, the two ducked off to the sides just in time for their allies to let loose with their assault rifles. Crimson lights flashed from each impact on his body, but the figure still stood. The gunmen were stunned: one or two shots absorbed by aura, sure, but to take that many...

"It's a Huntsman!" One of the swordsmen shouted. As if waiting only for that realization, the rogue pounced, shoulder checking him into the wall and blasting his comrade across from him. He hurled the swordsman over his head into the gunmen, forcing them to stumble, before flipping over the three and unleashing a torrent of rifle fire from above. By the time he landed, all that was left of the White Fang squad were groaning and unconscious messes. A job well done. He placed his rifles on two holsters on his back, flicked something over his shoulder, and was gone.

The police arrived to find an ace of spades amongst the fallen criminals.

* * *

 _"The 'Ace of Spades' has struck a fifth time! Eight White Fang members were taken into custody by Vale police last night after a possible encounter with the unknown vigilante. In their possession: one hundred thousand lien in Dust and cards. While the 'Ace of Spades' has only been known to target the White Fang, local authorities are still concerned about the possibility of a rogue Huntsman who may be tied to the notorious Torch gang..."_ Lisa Lavender's voice faded away in Adam's mind as he mindlessly ate his food, Scroll only playing the news in a desperate attempt to keep him awake long enough to get the call he truly wanted. These days, it was one of the only things he looked forward to.

Unfortunately, as promising as their friendship seemed that night on the docks, Team RWAY just could not hold up to the reality of the situation at hand. With each day of dancing on eggshells around the subjects of crime, terrorism, Dust, the Schnees, faunus and the White Fang, they drifted further and further apart. They tried to ignore the wound left behind, but rather than heal, it only festered. They were still allies—strong allies, at that—and acquaintances, but, with the exception of Ruby and Yang, 'roommates' was now as far as they got. By the second week, they were in different worlds.

Ruby and Yang spent their time with JNPR, Weiss focused more on her studies, and Adam found himself solely with faunus: in the mornings, he would teach his class of those who were tired of being oppressed and demeaned, in the afternoons after class he would chat with Velvet and her team, and at night he would spend his time talking with Blake until important matters arose on either of their ends.

Adam's eyes traveled across his team: even now, in times of relaxation, not much had changed. Ruby and Yang had even left their table to go talk with JNPR, and Weiss had gone so far to have her earplugs in as she looked over notes on her Scroll. Their eyes met, and just as quickly found other things more interesting. With CVFY off on a mission, the creeping chill of loneliness might have threatened to creep over his heart had this been even two weeks beforehand, but, after the docks, there was no doubt in his mind on where he belonged.

A smile tugged at his lips as his Scroll rang. He silently rose from the table, flipped his Scroll open and strolled to a more quiet corner to talk. Ever since that night, he and Blake had been calling each other more frequently.

* * *

For the briefest moment, that night, Adam thought he might have been dreaming. On that holographic screen was, without a doubt, his dear Blake. Her amber eyes were downcast, and her ears were still wrapped up in that bow he found so silly, but it was still _her._ He might've heard one of his teammates calling to him, but, he was far and away too focused on just seeing his closest friend for the first time in months.

"It's... been a while." Blake's voice snapped him out of his trance. He could finally move his legs again, and was quick to catch up with his other teammates who tossed him odd looks. He'd get to them, later. What was important now, however, was:

"It's been _months,_ Blake! What happened to you?" He spoke in a hushed tone that tried and failed miserably to hide his worries. Blake flinched, and her bow twitched as she tried to come up with a good answer:

"I'd gotten caught up in a lot of things, that's all. Trust me, a lot has happened." Any questions Adam had were swept aside by her smile.

"I can say the same, over here. I'd just gotten worried about you... our past doesn't treat us well." Blake nodded in agreement and, after a clear moment of hesitation, brought up a question that looked like it'd been bothering her for some time:

"... How's Beacon?" Her bow flattened out, and her smile became more coy. She was preparing for the worst. He must've frowned upon noticing that, for Blake looked even more pained.

"Beacon's... interesting, to say the least. There are a number of odd people around here—" As if to prove Adam's point outright, that was the exact moment where Yang decided it was time to poke her head into the conversation by jumping to Adam's side and right into frame. Blake nearly threw her phone.

"Helloooo! And who might this be, hm? A secret girlfriend you haven't been telling us about?~" She teased and nudged Adam's side with a cheesy grin, enjoying the flustered blushes on both him and Blake. "Ooh, she's cute, too, very nice!" Blake... still looked like she was nearly going to throw her phone, albeit for completely different reasons.

"Alright, Yang, that's enough!" Adam tried to put as much authority as he could into his voice. Unfortunately, with his cheeks still pink and his usual mystique being decidedly lessened by their jovial tone going back home, that amounted to very little. Luckily for him, Ruby curiously peered over his shoulder and drew Blake's attention off of Yang's teasing. Unluckily, that brought a new host of problems.

"Wait, you're that girl from before!" Blake's eyes widened, and the call immediately ended. Adam let out a deep sigh.

"Explain." His first conversation with Blake lasting for so little must've given him just enough of his usual agitation to sound serious, again, for Ruby let out an uneasy chuckle and folded her arms behind her back.

"Weeeell, I _might_ have answered your phone once while you were gone and it _might_ have been that Blake girl asking for you..." Adam's eyes imperceptibly narrowed. She was going through his things! Though, he supposed he forfeited his Scroll when he threw it away and left Beacon entirely... that did not make it okay! "She looked really spooked, though, like she was super afraid of something or someone!"

"Afraid of something..." Adam mumbled under his breath and looked at his now-blank Scroll. Were things in Menagerie not going as well as they thought it would? It was only now that he noticed Weiss trying to peek out from around Yang.

"I wanted to see who was so important, too, you know!" She complained and crossed her arms upon noticing that Blake had already hung up. Sensing a new target, Yang turned her mischievous grin down to Weiss.

"Scouting out the competition again, hm?" Weiss turned her nose up at the prospect and scoffed.

"As if!"

* * *

The next few conversations were decidedly less problematic, even if they did decide standard calls would be best, for now. Blake had landed safely in Menagerie and was currently just trying to make amends with her parents. It did well to explain why she sounded more closed-off than usual: her final words to them were hostile, to say the least. While she never seemed to want to talk much about efforts on her own front, Blake was all but desperate to hear just how his life at Beacon was going.

"I still can't believe Ruby and Yang are part of your team." Blake sounded like she didn't know what was more unbelievable: that he had a team in the first place or that such a team included _those_ two. Adam chuckled and leaned back against the cafeteria wall.

"Don't sound so surprised, Blake. They might not seem that serious—"

"To say the least." She chuckled softly. Adam rolled his eyes and laid back.

"However, they are good humans, I assure you. I just may not want to risk my life on whether or not they can stop making jokes." He heard a brief sigh of relief from Blake and the creaking of a bed as she laid down, as well. The afternoon, for him, must've been at the very crack of dawn over Menagerie.

"I _also_ can't believe you haven't strangled those two or yourself, by now, dealing with that every day."

"Trust me, I've thought about it." Adam caught a hint of uneasiness in Blake's laughter.

"I don't think you've told me much about the third one, though. Personality, fighting style, weapon... name..." The change in subject was no surprise to Adam: he'd been specifically avoiding that from the moment they spoke. _Weiss._ It had taken weeks of constant contact to get over the urge to draw his blade when she was near and, while Blake was nowhere near as extreme as he was, she had her own qualms against the Schnee Dust Company. He doubted Blake would ever see him as tainted or as a traitor to the cause... but it was not something he wanted to risk.

Adam was not in a position to lose Blake, right now. Then again, was he ever?

"She's as standard as they come." Adam lied through his teeth, gaze having fallen on the subject of their conversation: she was on her own Scroll, shocked by whoever was on the other side. Shock gave way to anger and, with a shout of annoyance muffled by the din of the students, stormed off outside. "How are the parents?" It was a low blow, knowing how much she avoided the subject, but it would also tell Blake it was off-limits. It did its job.

"... They're fine, Adam. I think Dad's finally coming around. Not to possibly leading the White Fang again, but, at least to me—" He heard voices on the other end.

"Oh, sorry, I have to go. I'll talk to you later!"

"Talk to you soon. Stay safe, Blake." He snapped his Scroll shut and frowned. Things just weren't making sense, with Blake: sometimes, she would disappear abruptly, called away by something he never heard. With her being supposedly afraid when Ruby answered for him, Adam once thought that this was signs of whatever was giving her so much trouble in Menagerie... but that didn't explain why she would always sound so happy when she had to leave. It was a subtle thing, one perhaps only he could hear from her voice alone, however, it was something that left him confused. Confused and faintly jealous. Just what was going on, in Menagerie?

He sighed and tried to push the thoughts out of his head the best he could: Adam knew fully, now, that if he let those thoughts absorb him, it'd have him on an airship to the faunus continent in an instant. God knew that it was already a course of action he wished to take. A shrill shout of frustration from outside, muffled by the windows, caught his attention, and thankfully swept aside the rest of his worries. Instead, as he watched Weiss stuff her Scroll into her pocket and storm off, it was replaced by curiosity.

As Adam slipped outside, he didn't catch the worried, silver eyes watching him leave.

* * *

Weiss arrived to her next class almost half an hour early, choosing to linger next to the door and stew in her fury, alone. Cut off. Her father had the nerve to _cut her off_ when she'd nearly sacrificed her life to protect the linings of his pockets and the reputation of 'his' company? The worst part, though, the insult to injury, the cherry on top of this cluster of a sundae, was that he'd used Klein's number to call her. With Winter having left, her most loyal butler was the only real friend she'd had. He'd abused that bond for his own means.

Had she any less composure, Weiss might have lashed out at the walls. She was angry—no, _livid—_ her father would do this to her! All of his praise of her skill in years past suddenly evaporated, instead replaced with some drivel about how she could have damaged the company's reputation if they knew she was off being some reckless vigilante! The one time she could stand up for her company, and her father instead cared only for himself and how much power he had to swing about to protect her image: exclusive news deals, Dust to certain friends, favors to certain less... reputable ones. All of it equaled to money she wouldn't be having for a month.

When she'd made the mistake of giving Jacques a piece of her mind, that month became 'an amount of time to be defined later'. Effectively 'until he felt like it'. With no one around to judge her, Weiss groaned and slid down the wall onto her rump. The rush of being able to finally tell off her father had come crumbling down and left only the cold reality of her stupid decisions. She was being a child, and now she was punished.

This didn't just extend to being all but stranded here at Beacon for the entirety of summer break unless she wanted to—Weiss shuddered at the thought— _borrow_ lien, but to luxuries like fine clothes and her very fighting style: no free Dust. Weiss was certain that, knowing just how much her father despised her coming to this Academy, it would be the last point that he would stick on. It was solely to spite her. Weiss let her eyes close and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Today was going just _peachy._

"Troubles at home?" Weiss flinched and her eyes shot open at the sudden voice. She masked her brief shock with a glare shot off at the source: Adam, looming just at the corner. The last person she needed to see, right now.

"I don't recall telling you to eavesdrop on me." She couldn't put much malice into her complaint: her frustration was entirely focused inwards. Adam only stepped closer, Blush glinting in the low light of the halls in his hand. For a brief moment, Weiss thought she might have seen worry flicker in those cold, green eyes. If only she could get her focus off of the image of that pale mask her mind overlaid onto him. The mask of a killer.

"It's hard not to, with you shouting so loudly. What happened?" How nosy. Weiss chose not to answer that, instead just looking off down the hall and waiting for him to inevitably grow bored. As the seconds passed and Adam only leaned against the wall, she figured out that time probably wasn't going to come any time soon. For that matter, neither would the point where her mind wouldn't just travel back to her stupid mistakes.

Time crawled by. Weiss became distinctly aware that she didn't have anyone to talk to about this: Winter was often busy with specialist work, Ruby wouldn't understand, she didn't really _know_ Yang, Penny's parents had presumably snatched her away before they could exchange contact information and while she now finally knew Klein's number, that clearly wasn't going to be safe. Her eyes flicked over to Adam. She sighed.

"I was cut off from my funds." Adam met her stare. "My _father_ decided that stopping a massive criminal operation was deserving of punishment instead of praise. He was also not exactly pleased with my decision to inform him on just how insane of a decision, that was." Weiss explained, watching Adam carefully. Other than a slight narrowing of his eyes, it didn't even look like he'd heard her.

"For how long?"

" 'An amount of time to be determined later'." She put air-quotes around what her father had said, not bothering to hide the mocking disdain in her voice or how childish it made her sound. She needed to vent! "In _other_ words, until I prostrate myself before him and beg for his forgiveness. I know he never even wanted me to be a Huntress, let alone come to Beacon over Atlas! He's so concerned with his image that he just wanted me there so he could scrub any mistake I made out of the public eye. If you're wondering why our name and faces aren't plastered all over the news, there you go."

"Can you not survive with just what the Academy gives you?" Adam asked with a raised brow. Weiss wasn't stupid, she caught the real implication of that: _"What's wrong? Can't survive without the silver spoon in your mouth?"_ She glared daggers at him in return.

"I _can,_ but I won't be able to _fight._ " She drew Myrtenaster and slowly spun its cylinder, each slot filled with highly-refined, powdered Dust. The best on and _off_ the market. It was likely the last she'd have for some time. "Not for long, anyway. If you haven't noticed, my style uses quite a lot of refined Dust. With prices this high, I could scarcely fill two of them, let alone some of the most powerful forms. Yellow and purple, lightning and gravity, have all but vanished off the market."

"Surely, you didn't come without spare Dust." It was clear to Weiss, now, that Adam was not so much responding as prodding her onward. Weiss admitted to herself that she was happy for that.

"It won't last forever. Besides, this is just a warning; he'll drag me out to Atlas, if I don't submit." Weiss surprised herself with how bitter she was, now that the words actually fell from her lips rather than occupied her thoughts. She traced her fingers along Mrytenaster's glyphs, all but invisible unless the light hit them just right. She sighed and let her shoulders slum: her annoyance was little more than a tiny campfire trying to keep away the arctic that was fear and sadness. Weiss knew she'd messed up: who knew exactly how much this had damaged the company? Sure, no one _publicly_ knew, but rumors still spread.

"I might as well get the apologies over with, now. Maybe he'll just see it as a lapse of judgement. Well, it _was,_ but even _more_ of one..." Her hand had already drifted towards her pocket as self-doubt won out over pride. It was then that Adam decided to take a more active role in their conversation:

"I disagree," He stated and took a seat next to Weiss. Instinct had her inch away from the ex-terrorist, but Adam didn't appear to notice. "He's holding your lien above you because he knows that it can control you. Submit now, and you'll only solidify it, and admit to you and him both that you are a puppet on golden wire."

"What do you suggest, then? Suffer just to prove a point?"

"Break free. _Rebel_ and go on without your funds to prove that he has no power over you." Weiss scoffed at the thought.

"And put my title and honor at risk? There are things other than just money he can and has threatened to take, before; it's easy to rebel when you don't have anything to lose." She tensed slightly, wondering if that was stepping too far in its insinuations of his past. Adam, however, only looked off at the ceiling for a time. The corner of his lips tugged upwards into a mirthless smile.

"You have a point. If only you believed it, yourself." Weiss sat up straight and threw a sidelong glare at him.

"Excuse me?"

"Why would you come here, if you were so worried about what else he could levy against you? Do you really believe he will fly here and drag you away from Beacon, right out from under someone like Ozpin's nose?" The seconds ticked by until Weiss laid back against the wall. She brushed a few loose strands of her snow-white hair away, and instinctively let her hand linger on the scar she'd gained in earning even this minor freedom.

"You gravely underestimate just how petty my father can be..." Ice-blue eyes met emerald, both cold and unified in their barely masked disdain for the head of the Schnees. Their reasons may be different, and the level that they accepted it even more so, but, Weiss couldn't ignore that common thread between them. Their conversation suffered a quiet death, leaving the two content to whittle the time away: first by simply sitting there, then by going over their notes for the next class. Only once did Adam speak again before they entered:

"Would you rather be poor and free, or wealthy and enslaved?" He received no answer.

* * *

"Is it nearing completion?" A deep voice, garbled and echoing from a modulator, echoed across its small base. Its source watched closely as the final pieces of its weapon were slotted into place by its only ally. It could afford just the one: to take more would increase the chances of being found out exponentially.

"Looks like it! It should be done by the beginning of the second semester. The operation is proceeding as planned." Fiery, loud and boisterous, its assistant crossed her arms and smirked. Her leader sighed; she didn't even bother obscuring her voice.

"And the Schnee still does not know of the resources we stole... excellent! Do you remember your part?" In response, she flipped out a photo and looked over her targets, taken at the time of their arrangement into teams at Beacon Academy. Namely, a shocked Schnee heiress and silently fuming ex-White Fang member standing at the edge of the frame, distancing himself from the group. The blonde hugging her dear sister was of no regard to them.

"I go and soften them up, test their resistance and them _bam!_ You hit 'em with the weapon and finish it off."

"Exactly! Now go, go and—" Her leader broke out into a coughing fit and groaned. "Okay, doing that voice is officially killing me." Ruby grumbled and rubbed her throat. Throwing her voice modulator—a plastic cup—aside, she skipped over and flipped through her—Weiss'—binder full of their super secret plans to bring the group back together.

"You're the one who decided to do it in the first place!" Yang tussled her sister's hair, earning herself the fiercest pout Ruby could muster.

"Well, duh! It's a secret, mysterious plan! You've gotta be mysterious while making it, too! You didn't even try..." She grumbled.

"Aw, sorry, Rubes, I'll be sure to do so, next time."

"There won't _be_ a next time! My plan is flawless. We'll have the band back together in no time, flat." Ruby shut the binder to punctuate her confident statement. "Now go, go and... uh, do your social butterfly thing!"

"Operation: Best Day Ever begins today!"

* * *

 **A/N: Compared to the heavy action of Volume 1's ending, Volume 2 starts off pretty slow. Worry not, though, it'll make up for it in time...  
**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	20. V2: Putting the Band Back Together

**Putting The Band Back Together  
**

 _"The Ace of Spades' vigilante rampage continues, this time claiming the life of a White Fang officer last night after a prolonged shootout in the commercial district of Vale. Despite the property damage caused, public opinion continues to rise for this unknown fighter, peaking at 63% in the most recent poll."_ Adam laid back in his bed in the night, teetering between the edge of sleep and wakefulness, listening to the news coming from Weiss' scroll. She scoffed and rolled her eyes as she turned it off. Upon hearing the heiress take a breath, Adam closed his eyes and wondered if maybe by some miracle he'd fall asleep before the inevitable inflammatory, political commentary—

"I don't understand how anyone can support that ruffian!" Too late. "Whether or not he's fighting the White Fang, he's still putting innocent people at risk with his actions! What about when someone gets hurt? I just don't get Vale, sometimes." She said with disdain. Ruby, who was trying to get some homework done before bed, shrugged.

"He can't be _that_ bad; he just wants to help! Besides, it's just the White Fang! Putting criminals away is a-okay in my book!"

"What about putting them in the _grave?_ " Weiss countered.

"Well, uh... o-okay, maybe that's a little far..." Ruby mumbled.

"Just a little? What about when it's not just a bunch of radicals who _actually_ deserve it? What if he decides the average Dust thief needs to die, or just someone he doesn't like? He can't play judge, jury and executioner!" The heiress all but lectured Ruby. "Besides, if he _really_ wanted to help, he could join up with the proper authorities!"

Adam stifled a laugh. "Oh, have something to add, Mister _Belladonna?_ " He didn't bother rising up to sit at Weiss' provocations. Adam did, however, rise metaphorically to them:

"I just think it's funny that you believe the authorities can do a thing to stop the White Fang _or_ Torchwick."

"Aren't _you_ a vigilante, too, Weiss?" Ruby added.

"W-well, that's different!" Flustered, Weiss tried to defend herself, but to no avail, especially with Adam jumping into the conversation fully.

"Ah, I see: it is fine when _you_ blow up property, but not him, right?"

"I blew up my own crates, you simpleton!"

"You _also_ blew yourself up," Ruby said with a snicker. "Oh, and the docks that _didn't_ belong to you."

"Don't forget the warehouses caught in the blast." Adam reminded them both.

"Oh, oh! What about the crates that _didn't_ belong to her?" He heard the creak and swing of Ruby's bed as she bounced off to the floor, ignoring Weiss' growls completely.

"Technically, none of it belongs to her, just yet."

"Oh shut _up,_ both of you!" Weiss shouted. Ruby let out a sudden squeak, and Adam found out rather quickly why, when a pillow smacked into his face, too.

"I'm keeping it." His muffled voice managed to be heard just barely over Ruby's giggles. Content to finally get that nap in, Adam let himself drift off. That is, until the door was suddenly slammed open by Yang.

"Get up, loser, we're going to the club!" She gallantly exclaimed and strode in with purpose, all while Adam grunted in surprise and flung himself upright, Wilt in hand, only to strike his forehead against the bedframe. Groaning and glaring daggers at Yang, he growled:

"Is there any particular _reason_ you are shouting so loudly?" He flung the pillow back at Weiss and Ruby upon hearing them snickering at him.

"Because! This is important! It's Friday, I want to go to the club, and _you_ need to lighten up. Plus, you're the only one I'd actually take there, anyway."

"Excuse me?" The heiress, formerly looking so disinterested, clearly took exception to that. "I'm just as old as you are, unlike Ruby!" She crossed her arms and glared at Yang.

 _"Wow, way to throw me under the bus."_ Ruby mumbled under her breath.

"Well, yeah, but you're..." Yang looked over Weiss and waved her hand at her. The heiress growled. "You!" Weiss just rolled her eyes and grabbed her Scroll.

"Whatever—"

"Besides, a nightclub is no place for a princess like you!" Adam knew bait when he saw it, and this had to be one of the most blatant attempts at reverse psychology he had ever seen in his life.

"That's it! I'm coming with!" Which made it all the more sad, even knowing Weiss' reasons, that she fell for it hook, line and sinker. Snapping her Scroll closed, she hopped up on her feet and stormed off to her closet, all while Yang and Ruby tried and failed to hold back their victorious grins.

"Great. You have your partner. Have fun." Once more, Adam tried to sleep. Yang threw her arm around his shoulders before he could even lay his head down an inch. He tensed and gritted his teeth; he still was not particularly fond of physical affection.

"If I agree, will you let me go?"

"Aw, what's wrong? I thought giving me the cold shoulder was Weiss' job!" Adam patted Yang's back, then threw her off of his bed. She laughed even as she tumbled onto the ground. "That was a good one, come on, give me some credit!" He supposed it was good they were actually going to a club.

He needed a drink.

* * *

"You aren't _really_ thinking of going there in that getup, are you?" Weiss scoffed. Two drinks would be better, now. The princess had gotten herself a white peacoat, skirt and stockings, the latter two with a trim of black lace. Yang, on the other hand, had gotten a decidedly more complicated attire: a cream-colored coat with darker sleeves with a chest window just large enough to show off the low-cut black shirt, among other things. Adam supposed he was not surprised that the 'show-off' of the three girls by far would have a miniskirt that barely covered a thing and was shorter than the space between it and her stockings. He was, however, bothered by the fact that she had a belt that had no real purpose in existing.

And then there was him... dressed the exact same as he usually was.

"What? Those are pretty good going-out clothes!" Yang protested, then paused and gave him another look over. "... Though, did you lead your pals looking like you were about to hit the nightclub?" She winced slightly; the temperature dropped _instantly_ upon those words leaving her lips, and suddenly emerald and ice alike were glaring her down. Yang awkwardly laughed it off and waved them to follow her out of the dorms. By now, the Moon had long since hung in the sky.

"That doesn't change that it's the same thing he always wears! Special occasions call for different outfits!" Weiss continued on as if nothing had happened.

"Spoken like a true princess." Adam dryly retorted.

"Spoken like someone with fashion sense, more like. Something you seem to sorely lack." A familiar argument. The image of that agitating friend of Velvet's flashed in his mind. He snorted.

"Says the girl going to a club in the outfit of a businesswoman." Ahead of them, Yang sighed. She really hoped they weren't going to keep this up the entire way to where she kept her motorcycle.

* * *

"I am _not_ short! I'm... taller than Ruby!"

"She's two years younger than you." They did. Honestly, she didn't even know how they'd gotten to this new argument from the old one. Still, Yang realized now more than ever the great importance of her mission! Even if from how they argued like a married couple, she wondered if it'd just be easy to leave them in a locked room for a few hours. Having thought ahead, she'd gotten herself a sidecar, one that she unceremoniously shoved Weiss into.

"Hey! How come I get the side seat!" She complained as she patted herself down and watched Adam take a seat behind Yang.

"Sorry, you must be _this_ tall to ride the motorcycle." Adam coldly sniped Weiss with a smirk before Yang could so much as open her mouth for a joke. Yang failed to hold back her laughter even as Weiss crinkled her nose in agitation and silently fumed in the sidecar, defeated. She revved up the engine, and the three took off into the night.

* * *

"Who does a _wheelie_ when they have a _**sidecar**_ attached!" Weiss shrieked when they finally came to a stop at their destination. The poor princess was still trembling while she tried to get herself out and closer to Yang and Adam casually walking away. "Don't you just walk away from me! Hey!" She stormed up beside the two and took a look around.

It looked like she'd taken them on a express trip to the worst part of Vale: dirty, industrial-looking buildings, power lines hanging loose and visible, not a single hologram in sight, Adam was even rather sure that he had a White Fang safehouse set up not too far from here before he and Blake had abandoned them. Obnoxiously loud, thumping music came from the only building that looked to have its lights on just ahead. Two men stood guard at either side of its sliding doots, each in sharp, black suits with red ties and hats all too similar to his own.

They took one look at them and ran right through the door in a panic.

"Is this how most nightclubs react when you approach, Yang?" Weiss murmured uneasily, already not liking this place one bit.

"Mmm, I'd rather not say." She dug her fingers into the door and forced it open with a mighty push.

Ten armed guards with guns pointed right at them were on the other side, right between them and the second door to get inside the club in full. Yang stood there with a dumb grin and her hands on her hips, while Adam had, in the split second of the door opening and her seeing the guards, managed to draw his blade, leaving it pointed at one guard and his sheath-turned-rifle pointed at another.

And then there was Weiss, standing behind them both and wondering with each passing moment if the risk of crashing a motorcycle she had no clue how to drive would be worth escaping this place.

Yang looked over the guards. "... Well, are you gonna let us in, or what?"

* * *

Adam _despised_ clubs. The music turned up so high he once genuinely contemplated if it was a human plot to irritate faunus, the lights so bright and chaotic he'd rather sit in a pitch-black room for eons, the humans, the heat, the scent of alcohol, shame and sweat, the dancing, the _noise_ it was all so insufferable. He had prayed that one of those guards would take a shot just so he'd have a reason to trash the place and go back home, but, no, somehow through Yang's charisma, threats against some giant named Junior and annoyingly short skirt they managed to get into the club proper.

Which was why he was currently sitting in a crimson booth next to Weiss, swirling a tumbler of amber alcohol and ice as the two all but stared one another down. A fruity drink that had a fanciful name he couldn't recall sat in front of the heiress completely untouched. Meanwhile, Yang already had emptied a cocktail, and had taken a seat on the other side of him. He was effectively trapped. This was it. This was his judgement for his actions.

Adam let the alcohol scorch his throat pleasantly on the way down and shoved the empty glass away from him. Yang looked upon the two of them with intense thought. The plan was falling through! Something was supposed to happen, here!

"Geez, I know you two are sticks in the mud, but I don't think I've seen you two this huffy about something other than when you're fighting!" Yang had to shout over the booming music. She reached out and yanked over a passing gangster to shout new orders to him. Sure, he wasn't actually someone who took drink orders, but what was he gonna say about it?

"I could've told you the Princess wouldn't have fit. It's not my fault that she's dragging the mood down." Said the one all but radiating frustration. Whereas Weiss had nothing to do but stew in her anger and glare at Yang for fun, Adam had his favorite past time since he'd joined the White Fang in the first place: bothering a Schnee.

"I'm the one who's bringing the mood down? Please! Do you _ever_ have fun?" Adam opened his mouth. "That _doesn't_ involve fighting?" He closed it. "Ha! I thought so! Why did you even come along, anyway?"

"I said I would come, and I did. I thought _you_ came to disprove that you're a stick in the mud. Doing quite the opposite, aren't you?" Yang groaned and laid her head down just as another pair of fruity drinks and a second tumbler was passed over to them by a grumbling man in a suit. She suddenly brought her head up. _Idea!_

"Fine! How about we go dancing, then, and I'll prove it!" Weiss slammed her hands down and rose from her seat, blue eyes gleaming with challenge.

"I don't dance." She blinked. Weiss... didn't expect Adam to refuse so plainly. With a groan of frustration, she plopped back down just as Yang stood up.

"I've got it! How about you two settle this like _real..._ " Her lilac eyes bounced between her two teammates, trying to find _any_ kind of similarity between them. "... Paaartners?"

"Are you going anywhere with this?" Adam's monotonous inquiry was almost lost in the music altogether.

"Of course I am!" Yang snatched a pair of shots of whiskey from a passing man in a suit, ignoring his complaints as she slid one to them both. Adam was befuddled. Weiss looked like Yang had told her to go pickpocket an old man.

"You're joking. Please tell me you are. Do you really think I would partake in such a barbaric practice?"

"Don't be such a wuss, Weiss!"

"Oh, yes, a little peer pressure is all it'll take. Come, now, Yang, I'm far better than that." As Yang and Weiss bickered, Adam stared blankly down at the two glasses. On one hand, he could save himself an undoubtedly massive amount of trouble, likely some dignity and a headache in the morning. On the other, he'd have to agree with Weiss to do so, and the thought had barely even ended before his mind was made up. Really, as he snapped back to reality, he didn't even know why he needed to think about it, anymore.

"... And I will have you know that I am a fully grown woman, but I _still_ refuse to even consider this brutish contest." Especially when Weiss made it so terribly easy for him.

"There are many definitions for 'grown woman'," Adam finally entered the conversation, and made a show of looking the heiress over. "I don't think very many apply to you, right now." Weiss took a good, hard look at Adam, her head subtly cocked to one side and her face plain, but the frozen surface of her eyes hiding an absolute inferno of rage. Her eyes narrowed and in a single fluid motion, she snatched the shot in front of her and downed it. Adam's grin bordered on vicious as the mistake hit her mind far too late, and she was left leaning over, resisting the urge to gag.

"W-well?" Weiss forced out in a hiss, her fist clenched. Having had far more experience than her in these matters, Adam's glass was drained far easier. Letting the warmth make its way through him, Adam reclined against the seat, smirked and held his arms out in silent challenge. Yang only hoped they mistook her grin just for her usual amusement at their antics and not as one of victory: was this right of her to do? Probably not. Was it _working?_ Absolutely! She'd have these two loosened up in no time! All she'd have to do is keep the drinks coming...

* * *

Tonight, Yang learned what Adam was like when he was buzzed. The answer was: dramatic. Adam let out a jeering, borderline villainous laugh when Weiss struggled to finish off the next round.

"I have taken worse than this before you even _crawled_ out of combat school!" He proclaimed as he slammed down yet his swiftly-emptied shot glass.

"Yeah," The heiress coughed. She'd be winning, she swore, if it didn't feel like she was drinking a dose of a campfire! "That's something to brag about. T-typical ruffian." Yang's giddy glee over stage one of her grand master plan coming to its conclusion was cut short when she swore she could've seen a familiar flutter of red off in the crowd. She glanced down at the table: she scarcely had anything to drink, and there was no way she was seeing things...

The crowd briefly parted, just enough for, even across the entire club, Yang to see a twirling, red cloak worn by a certain little sister in its midst. She wasn't seeing things, what was she doing here! Yang got up from the table.

Silver and lilac eyes met.

"Hey, I'm gonna be right back, just gotta take care of something!" She wasn't even sure if the two heard her as she jogged off and Ruby immediately tried to wriggle her way out of the crowd. Oh, Ruby was in _so_ much trouble when she caught her!

Behind her, Adam and Weiss had finally fallen silent: Yang was the one getting their supply, so their contest had come to an abrupt end.

"You know what she's trying to do, right?" Weiss turned to Adam; even tipsy, Weiss wasn't stupid. He chuckled and leaned into the red cushions, letting his eyes fall closed to spare them the bright lights.

"But of course, Weiss; she's easier to read than you are." His eternal guard lowered, Adam laughed when Weiss responded by leaning over and jabbing him in the side. He opened his eyes to find one of the fruity drinks she never got to in front of him and Weiss sitting next to him, staring out at the sea of people with a pleasant smile.

"Think it's working?" She swirled the brightly-colored alcohol in its glass and innocently looked up to him. As he looked her over, Adam had to admit at least to himself that it was having an effect, alright: even though she had the Schnee symbol proudly displayed on the back of her coat, the buzz left it all too hard to truly connect her back to the family that he despised. It was the reason he did not drink much at all when it was time for him to lead: alcohol had a tendency to wash away his hate, and the things it would leave behind were often... unpleasant to remember.

This time, however, it left behind the shards of a friendship. One with a girl named Weiss Schnee, no relation to the Schnee family. Just like their little 'peace treaty'. Weiss giggled. Adam wondered if that was that the first time he'd heard her do so.

"Leeet me guess: it feels like that we really did start from the beginning?" Weiss savored this one, both for the fact that it did not taste of smoke and bitter tears, and just to let this moment last. It was nice, to leave behind all the doubt and fears from past days, past _hours_ , even: no worrying about the Schnee name, no mask of the White Fang flashing in her mind whenever she saw Adam, no worrying if her friends would choose others over her, nothing at all. No wonder her mother indulged in this.

"You could say that." Adam admitted to Weiss, though his gaze had found something else of interest: a side door. More importantly, one under constant guard, yet on occasion someone would break off from the bar or the crowd, flash some lien, and move right on by. A VIP section? No... But what else could it be—

A light whack at his side told him he must've missed something Weiss said. He only arched an eyebrow.

"I _said,_ how come you don't dance? More secrets and mystique?" She repeated, not so much glaring as much as she was pouting from not being listened to.

"You wouldn't believe me."

"Try me." With one of the secrets he wouldn't dare let someone like Weiss know at risk, Adam decided that door's mysteries were now of the highest priority and called over one of Junior's goons. He decided to ignore the fuming heiress next to him.

"You! What's that door, over there!" The goon looked between the two: friends of Blondie _and_ he'd heard some rumors that a couple of students who looked suspiciously like them had stopped an entire White Fang operation by themselves. Yeah. Yeah, it'd be better to just tell them and run.

"Look, I'm not supposed to talk much about it out here, but..." He sighed, looked over his shoulder and leaned over the table towards the two. Normally, this would call for hushed tones, but normal speaking volume might as well be whispering in this place. "Because of _someone_ tearing up the joint not too long ago, the boss had to open up something on the side. If you've got the lien, you could turn it into a little extra, if you know what I mean."

An illegal casino. Adam smirked. Now _that_ sounded like a good time.

Yang wasn't sure if she should be worried, jealous or excited when she finally dragged Ruby back to their booth by her cape to find Adam and Weiss were nowhere to be found.

* * *

"Adam, even if this _wasn't_ many kinds of illegal, I don't have any money, _remember?_ " Weiss mumbled in hushed tones as the two made their way through the hall connecting the club to the racket, the heiress occasionally needing to slow and regain her balance: she could've sworn she was feeling fine when she was sitting down! Adam simply reached into his pocket and withdrew a number of lien cards.

"We'll be fine." The roar of the music had already turned into just a dulled thumping by the time they reached the second door. He paused and turned to hold the cards out towards her. "Of course, I can understand why a princess like you would be so afraid of—" Weiss snatched the lien from his hand before he'd even finished.

"I will have you know, right now, that I absolutely would not be doing this, were I not impaired," Weiss tried to preemptively defend herself.

"If you can say that now, I gravely doubt that. Now, prepare yourself! I'd hate to walk out of here empty-handed." With that, Adam opened the door for her, mockingly bowed and waved her forward. The first thing that hit her senses was the scent of smoke: it was a more cramped room than the massive club, likely even a converted VIP area. The walls were still black and outlined with white and red lights, and people of many classes of wealth—though all likely still criminal, Weiss thought—were packed in surrounding red felt tables that stuck out like sore thumbs, or lingering around a substantially smaller bar.

Even with her senses dulled, she could feel the eyes of many of the faunus patrons being drawn to her instantly, even when Adam stepped in beside her. He scanned across the room, thinking on where to go, at least, that was what he wanted people to believe. He wanted to look unsure. Coupled with walking in with the closest thing to royalty you could get without a crown, and...

"Would you look at that, you're just in time to join in. New here?" A snide voice called out from one of the closer tables to them; a group of rough looking men focused their stares on the two of them, the speaker being a rather large man with a scruffy beard. A dealer had just finished gathering up the cards by the time Weiss noticed him. Many glasses, some half-full, some emptied altogether were scattered about: it was someplace even Adam would stick out, let alone an heiress.

"More or less. Unfortunately, all we have is 500 lien, I hope that's enough." Weiss glanced over to Adam with a hint of panic in her eyes: he hadn't just offered a large sum, he'd offered everything they'd brought in the first place. She nudged Adam's side to try and get him to back down, but she could already see the lien signs in their eyes. It was already too late.

"Well, why don't you two grab a seat, then. Grab a drink, they're free, down here, if you don't mind bottom shelf. Your little princess friend over there looks a little tipsy, already—" A blush rose to her cheeks; did it look that obvious? She thought she looked just fine! "But a couple more won't hurt, right?" The scruffy one said with confidence oozing from him. All but dragged along into this madness, Weiss sighed and took a seat beside Adam.

"What's the game?" Adam casually asked as the dealer shuffled. A couple players chuckled to themselves; joining without even asking what the game was, altogether?

"Hold 'em."

 _Now_ they had Weiss' attention.

* * *

"Look, Blondie, no lien, no entry." The guard tried to hold her back from the side door. As it turned out, though, an elbow to the jaw was a perfectly acceptable payment! Yang threw the door open and stormed in with Ruby guiltily slinking in behind her. By now, any emotion before had turned into a constant state of annoyance: first it was kind of cute that the two actually managed to go off and have fun, but around the time she had to catch Ruby a second time, the agitation began to set in. Having to basically be their mom was not part of the plan!

When the second door was flung open, and her two teammates stumbled out laughing with drinks and lien in their hands, however, Yang was not entirely sure how to feel. Her questions would have to wait for later: a group of furious guys were gathering up behind the two, and from Ruby tugging at her shirt and pointing back to goons cracking their knuckles around their fallen buddy at their back, it didn't look like they were in a much better position.

"Guess we'll have to do this the hard way," Adam blithely stated and clicked open his blade.

Junior's club would find itself closed for another two weeks.

* * *

Yang had managed to drag herself to the first comfy bed she found before just collapsing onto it. Sure, punching her way out of a club got even easier when there were three other people—maybe not as easy as it would be if two of them were sober—but trying to get herself, a hyper Ruby, a drunk heiress and a tipsy ex-terrorist onto one motorcycle and then _not_ crash and die was a challenge she hoped she never had to do again. She'd lecture Ruby tomorrow; right now, all she wanted to do was sleep.

"Hey, that bed's mine..." Weiss tiredly murmured and uselessly tried to tug Yang away. She grumbled into her pillow and waved over at the other side of the room, where Adam had all but collapsed onto the sheets. None of them other than her sister had even bothered changing beyond the girls shoving their weapons in their lockers; the closest Adam even got was throwing his jacket off.

"Just take mine, Weiss, whatever." After a few more futile yanks Weiss stomped her foot and wobbled her way over to the other bunkbed. She just stood there for a while, blankly staring ahead, before Adam rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"What are you doing?" He could barely manage the usual agitation in his voice.

"There'sh no ladder!" She slurred.

"... Jump, then!" Adam just turned himself over, not even wanting to deal with that. Yang, however, got the wonderful show of seeing Weiss try to form a glyph to hop onto, but without her rapier to focus her Semblance through or even simple sobriety, it was shaky and dull. That didn't dissuade the heiress, though, for without delay, she jumped onto the platform, it shattered like glass and she was unceremoniously dropped onto her face.

That did not stop her from trying two more times, each with the exact same result. Yang had to cover her mouth to hold back the laughter building up. Weiss growled and stomped her foot a little too hard, leaving her stumbling. With a frustrated sigh, the heiress looked down.

"I'm not moving to the top bunk." Adam didn't even give her a chance to ask.

"Ugh, then move over." After a moment of hesitation and a grunt of annoyance, Adam obliged without even sparing her a glance. And, just like that, all of Yang's agitation flew right out of the window. She tried her hardest to make sure it didn't look like she wasn't paying attention and patted herself down for her Scroll, grinning like a madman. While Weiss and Adam quickly drifted off to sleep, Yang was left awake for almost an hour like a kid on Christmas Eve.

The next morning was going to be _amazing._

* * *

 _Snap_

Adam knew something was wrong before he even opened his eyes. His head was throbbing and throat was dry, but those could be ignored: he'd had far worse in his life, after all. No, the issue was that he felt pleasantly warm, yet all of that heat was gathered around one side, and attempts to move his arm left it feeling more like someone had left a weight on top of it for the entire night. The answer should've been obvious, Adam thought, but his mind was taking forever to try and piece together such a simple puzzle. Yet another reason why he didn't drink.

 _Snap_

His eyes snapped open and locked onto the source of the sound of a camera going off. Rational thought took its sweet time coming to him, but the instincts of a criminal fearing being caught already had him reaching across the bed for Wilt. Yang peeked out out from over her Scroll with the dumbest, most devious and most _worrying_ grin he'd ever seen from her. When instinct had him pull his arm and whatever was on it closer to him, reality hit his mind like a bucket of cold water.

The nightclub, the gambling, Yang's little scheme from the night before, fighting their way out, then... then what? Adam tensed and heard a soft murmur beside him. Someone was on his arm and _had_ been for a long while. The fleeting thought of if it was better or worse that it wasn't Yang slipped through his mind as he glanced down.

Emerald eyes met ice-blue.

.

.

.

 _Snap_

Yang ducked.

* * *

 **A/N:** **And so phase two of Ruby and Yang's scheme begins...  
**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	21. Halcyon Days: Royale-les-Schnee

**A/N: Alright, big author's note at the beginning, this time. You see, the way that I usually do this fic is that I'm actually writing ahead 2-3 chapters so I have a buffer for such a rapid release schedule. The reason I'm saying this is that, surprisingly enough, this bit of fluff was written _before_ the (relative) tons of reviews I got from the last one.  
**

 **The other thing is about the title of the chapter, namely, that 'Halcyon Days' bit. There are a few ideas that I have for drabbles or pieces of fluff that don't exactly fit in the pacing of the plot, but probably still did happen at some point or another. A more slice-of-life focused thing. These chapters are by no means essential to the plot, they're just for fun. Around V3(when some light is probably desperately needed) I might make a sort of offshoot of the fic _called_ Halcyon Days just filled with fluff pieces.**

 **And then one last thing, as we approach V2 proper(in the next chapter), some events will be... I guess you could say jumbled. This is on purpose, don't worry. Alright, this A/N's gone on looong enough, enjoy the chapter.  
**

* * *

 **Halcyon Days: Royale-les-Schnee  
**

* * *

"Alright, alright, break it up, you two! Come on, it's the last day before break, at least save it until then!" Yang called out between giggles and laughter. She was on one side of the room, holding the shrieking, raging heiress up with her arms beneath Weiss' in a grapple. Glyphs fruitlessly attempted to form around her, but between a hangover—that Weiss herself wasn't helping—and her anger, nothing could form. Ruby, on the other hand, was jumping from side to side on the other side of the room, preventing the quieter yet no less aggravated Adam from leaping past her with his blade in hand.

"Unhand me, you brute! This is a matter of purity and pride! He took advantage of me!" Weiss thrashed about in Yang's grip, cheeks red and eyes blazing.

"Please, I should be asking what you were doing in _my_ bed, in the first place!"

"You tell me!"

"Maybe you should get a little spray bottle for them when they get like this?" Ruby suggested, holding out her arms and unabashedly taking advantage of the fact that she was the least likely person Adam would just shove out of the way.

"You should get a spray bottle for _her_ when she comes up with these asinine schemes!" The heiress shouted back.

"Oh, oops, you know about that, huh?" Yang let out a nervous chuckle. "Okay, okay, idea!"

"No more ideas," Adam immediately replied.

"It's a good one, honest!" She defended herself. "Rubes and I are gonna head to Patch to visit our dad over break. All you two gotta do is hold it back for _today_ , and then starting tomorrow, you two can... _clear out the tension~"_ Not particularly fond of her teasing, Weiss slammed her foot down onto Yang's. Cursing loudly, she let Weiss go, and in a blur of white and grumbling about 'no concept of maturity', she stormed off to the bathroom. Adam rubbed the bridge of his nose and sat back down.

"... Wait, break starts _tomorrow?_ " Ruby asked, wide-eyed.

"Yeah, why?" Yang hopped up onto her own bed.

"That's when we had that—" She glanced down at Adam. "That _thing_ we had planned?" Ruby hushed her voice and hopped up with her. Checking his Scroll for the time, Adam was pleased to find that it was only six in the morning. He could catch just a little more sleep...

"You're the one who planned it!"

 _"You never reminded me..."_

* * *

The final day of the semester went smoothly: most classes were more relaxed, only a few having exams or work scheduled. It left plenty of time for the teams to chat amongst themselves on their plans for summer break. It was only then, watching Ruby gush about all the fun things she and her family were going to do to a mostly uncaring Weiss, that Adam realized that beyond Beacon, his life was rather empty.

No family, only one close friend he could call, and even if he wanted to continue his teachings other faunus, few students—even his—really wanted to learn in a time of relaxation. The next two weeks were going to be dreadfully lonely, Adam imagined.

Which was why he was surprised when, after his goodbyes to Ruby and Yang, Weiss hadn't left.

They discovered something rather quickly: maintaining a tense silence took work. When there are two other people sharing your dorm that you might speak to, work to be done, studying to focus upon, and friends to visit, it is an easy matter to keep someone out of your mind. Unfortunately, when all there is to turn to is the quiet flipping of pages and an suffocating aura of boredom, the temptation to break the wall of ice grew strong.

The first day was easy: the two skipped ahead on their studies, Adam made some calls to Blake and soon left in the night. By the second, however, unless they had plans to skip through the entire curriculum, something would have to be done.

In the end, Weiss cracked first.

"Not going anywhere?" She asked, not even looking up from her book, that afternoon. Adam, laying on his back and watching the news muted on his Scroll, glanced off at Weiss. The tense silence only lasted a sparse few moments before he folded:

"Nowhere to go. I should be asking the same; I expected a princess like yourself to be on a Vacuan beach, by now."

Weiss scoffed. "Normally, I would. A shame I don't have the _lien_ for it. I don't even know why I listened to you."

"It's not too late to change your mind and run back to your father. I expect he would want you to visit." Adam sat up and noticed Weiss suddenly tensing; it seemed he was right.

"I'd rather not spend such a wonderful summer like this off in the frozen north, thank you." A poor excuse, but one hard to argue with, Adam thought.

"I doubt you'd need to spend the entire break there to satiate him—"

"If all we're going to talk about is my family, I think I'd _prefer_ the silence, thank you!" With only a withering glare and scowl at being shouted at as Adam's response, Weiss got her wish.

In the rapidly reforming sea of ice that followed, Adam's mind began to wander to warmer alternatives: two weeks was a long time. If he could collect enough funds, he might be able to make a brief trip to Menagerie and visit Blake. As a former follower of Sienna Khan, it was... unlikely that her parents would be willing to let him do so, but, the two could always work out a meeting place somewhere else, just like old times.

But that left the question of exactly how he could get the money: he could easily steal from some of the White Fang warehouses he knew of, but, that brought the risk of being spotted and identified: those grunts being able to discern his identity meant his appearance was no longer classified information. Adam slipped out the lien he'd already gathered: 750. It might've been enough to live for a week in Menagerie, but it was nowhere near enough to get an airship there.

Adam glanced up at Weiss. That 750, however, came from the previous night; a portion of the 1,500 they'd won, triple what he had arrived with.

"... What?" Weiss had noticed him staring, and was just a bit put off by his sudden smirk.

"I have a plan. We don't have much money to leave this place, correct?" He flourished the lien cards in his hand. "How about we rectify that?" Weiss carefully looked him over, examining him for even the smallest flaw or give to any ulterior motive.

"You're joking," She replied flatly.

"I'm completely serious: I know the streets and strategy more than anyone else you're going to find, and combined with your admittedly high poker—or hustling—" Adam ignored Weiss' complaining at the accusation. "Skills, we could make ourselves a nice profit." The heiress snorted and returned to her book, not even dignifying it with an answer. Sighing, Adam returned his attention to his Scroll.

"Of course, if you wish to remain under your father's thumb..." His smirk grew back larger than ever as the sound of a book slamming shut filled the room.

"Two rules:" Weiss began. Hook, line and sinker. Adam would feel bad for manipulating her, if it weren't so easy. "The first is no drinking. I'd prefer not to wind up in... _that_ situation, again." Her nose crinkled in disgruntlement. "Two, I get a seventy percent cut."

Adam scoffed. "Try again: fifty-fifty."

"Sixty-fourty."

"Fifty-five to forty-five and I don't play into Yang's insinuations."

Weiss growled. "Fine. Now, how, exactly, are we going to do this?"

"That's the simple part..."

* * *

 _"What we need, first, is a story."_

To say Weiss was agitated was putting it lightly: an entire day of planning, and it got her in her normal combat outfit _watching_ Adam play against a bunch of ruffian faunus who would barely even stand out amongst a criminal line-up. It was now that she felt a little bad for Junior: now that she'd seen what other, less reputable clubs looked like, Weiss could appreciate how much work he put into it. Of course, she would have fought her way out anyway, but, it was the thought that counted.

Speaking of thought, it was clear that Adam had not put a single bit of it into his plotting! Already, he'd managed to throw 50 lien, and he was just barely scraping it back in the next round. She could feel the disdainful and condescending looks towards the two of them. Unable to take it for any longer, Weiss stormed up and leaned down next to Adam, speaking in harsh whispers:

"Are you going to let _me_ salvage this disaster or not?" Adam's glanced up to meet her gaze with a condescending smirk all too similar to those around him. Weiss' eyes widened for the briefest moment, and she had to fight the urge to smile.

"Do you _really_ think you can do better than me, Princess?" He asked, as if he'd never seen her play once in her life.

This _was_ the story: the rise of a 'princess' who turned out to be far better at poker than her appearance let on.

"I know I'll do better than _you_ , Adam. Now _move._ "

 _"Something that anyone can trace this all back to instead of the truth. An origin story."_

* * *

 _"Alright, say that works. Then what?"  
_

Upon returning to Beacon, that night, Weiss had expected the two to perhaps change and move to a true venue or—even if it still scratched her the wrong way—a casino. When Adam returned to the room in his nightclothes of a plain red T-shirt and black sweatpants, however, she was left confused.

"We only made two-hundred! What do you mean we aren't going anywhere else tonight?" She complained.

"Let the story spread a little: when you plant a seed, do you expect it to grow and bear fruit in only a day?" He dropped onto his bed and rolled over.

"Cute," Weiss grumbled sarcastically.

* * *

 _"We move onto bigger targets."_

At this point, Weiss was just happy to have found a place bereft of the scent of smoke. Another back room, this one attached to a store serving as a front for the illegal racket going on just feet away. It was a known fact that a certain criminal had been frequenting the tables and spending quite a bit, so Adam said, anyhow. Weiss would not have willfully touched the place with a ten-foot pole, but, upon hearing two important pieces of news, she changed her mind: the gangster spent one thousand lien each time he showed up...

And it was one of Torchwick's goons.

These ruffians were louder and more boisterous than the last, openly laughing when she and Adam took their seats. Upon dropping five-hundred lien in front of the dealer, however, they shut up awfully quick. Instead, came that increasingly, annoyingly familiar gaze: they were like predators circling their prey. If only they knew just what their supposed 'prey' was...

 _"And how exactly are we going to stop them from just shouting our names to everyone they know?"_

* * *

 _"We? They'll stop themselves. Getting beaten by a little princess wouldn't do well for their reputations._ _ _The news will spread, but only to friends and rivals. No further._ "_

The look on the goon's face when Weiss cleaned them out made every moment worth it. The expressions of the rest of the room upon seeing a Schnee heiress collect the lien of known criminals and those who simply weren't caught yet, made it even more so.

Weiss giggled openly as the two walked out one thousand lien richer, each. Even if he won his lien back, the same could never be said for his dignity. Never before was she so happy to have someone see her name and appearance before who she really was.

"So, where to, tomorrow?" She casually asked Adam as they readied themselves for bed.

"The same location: we'll let him get his grudge matches in. We may lose one, but that will only invigorate him."

 _"After them?" She still wasn't convinced.  
_

* * *

 _"Said rivals: they will want to prove themselves, and will be quicker to make excuses for how they aren't at the same level or worse as their foes."_

It wasn't Junior's, but this nightclub was certainly well-kept and popular, both. Bright, flaring lights of all the deep colors of the night flashed and swayed across the dance floor, people laughed and called to each other over the music across tables, and the bar didn't have a single seat free. That, however, wasn't the target. No, Adam and Weiss were making their way right to the VIP section, and the little tournament within.

She could get used to this, Weiss thought: comfy couches, a space away from all the loud noise, and if it wouldn't break her rule, all the drinks one could want. A clever little trick to likely get any players off their game. Most importantly, though, was the emotions in their gazes: fear and tentative respect. The seed planted before was bearing fruit: they knew who she was, now, and they wanted to prove themselves. Whether it was against a Schnee or against the one who drained out that Torch gangster, Weiss didn't know.

But it still made them quick to make mistakes. They were no professionals, but, there was no doubting their skill: she had only come in third place. Adam scraped by in sixth.

 _"Easy to pick apart."_

* * *

"Ten _thousand_ lien?" For Weiss, it was no large sum, but for a heiress whose only access was through a credit card, there was a certain appeal to seeing this many lien cards scattered about between them. Adam sat down across from her on the dorm room floor, idly flipping a fifty-lien card between his fingers.

"And you doubted me," Adam teased with a smirk. Weiss rolled her eyes, smiled and began counting out her share.

* * *

 _"This will cause all kinds of trouble, you know!"_

Two days later, Adam and Weiss found themselves staring down the barrels of several guns. The Torch goon they humiliated leaned over the table, the only one to have not pulled out a weapon of their own, and motioned for them to hand the money right back over. Adam's hand twitched near his blade. Weiss tried not to admit to herself how exhilarating this was: finally rebelling against her father—however small this victory was—breaking the rules, stopping crime in a roundabout and more than likely criminal way, and with the least likely of people, no less.

The poor Torches didn't stand a chance.

 _"Nothing we can't handle."_

* * *

 _"Are... are you sure this will work?"_

 _"You wouldn't be asking me these questions if you didn't believe me."_

Exactly how she ended up laughing with Adam over drinks in one of those casinos and clubs, Weiss couldn't recall. What she could recall, however, as the two shared stories and complained about family and 'military' life alike as if they weren't speaking of times when they would be mortal enemies, was that she didn't care in the least. She only wished it didn't take alcohol to force herself to forget titles and histories.

"Well! I broke _my_ rule, so _I_ think it's time to break yours." She insistently pulled at him and jumped to her feet. "Let's dance." His mouth opened and closed as he tried to think of something, anything to dissuade her. Unfortunately, the truth decided to free itself, instead:

"I can't." As his lips betrayed his mind, Adam was worried to find that Weiss was still pulling him along.

"Great, because _I_ only know ballroom dancing!" Weiss called back without missing a beat, and the two became one with the crowd.

 _"Ugh, I can't believe I'm actually agreeing with you: we have a deal."_

* * *

With the rest of their team gone and even JNPR off in Mistral to visit Jaune and Pyrrha's families, Adam and Weiss didn't have to silence their laughter as they led one another back to their dorm.

"Alright, I will admit it: this was a brilliant idea worthy of even being one of my own." Weiss sighed happily as she plopped down on Adam's bed and flicked out their winnings from her pocket.

"Who would have imagined, strip away your inhibitions and you're even _more_ arrogant than usual." Adam teased in return, earning an elbow to the side for his troubles.

"And strip away yours and you're still without any form of manners!" She chastised without any true malice behind her words. Idly looking over her portion, she motioned off to Adam to get his own lien. "How much did we win tonight?" Adam counted some of his own up before, with a short laugh, just flicking them over his head to rain back down onto the bed.

"What does it matter, by now! It's not about the _lien_ , it's about winning!" He proclaimed. The heiress huffed and, after tossing away her hair clip, laid back next to him.

"The last time I checked, that was _my_ line." A hundred lien card bounced off of her nose.

"There's your royalties."

* * *

Adam wasn't entirely sure when Weiss started sleeping on the top bunk rather than on the other side of the room, however, he was not entirely sure if he minded.

Weiss wasn't entirely sure when their big 'rules' crumbled away, however, she was not entirely sure if she minded, either.

* * *

"Do you ever get the feeling that you're forgetting something rather important?" Weiss asked from Adam's bed, one afternoon, shuffling lien as if they were playing cards. The days and nights had gone by quickly, leaving them set for many weeks to come, but something was bugging her: like they weren't remembering a key fact. Adam, who was resting against the side of the bed, idly scanning through his Scroll, paused. Had they?

He rifled through his memories: there were no loose ends with the criminals, he'd called Blake at his usual time, yesterday, there were no other arrangements he could think of, or tournaments coming up—

"Like the endgame of the plan?" Adam suggested. Weiss stifled a snort and leaned over just into his sight.

"You managed to forget that? And here I was thinking you were supposed to be a strategist."

"I apologize. It managed to slip my mind between the eighth and nine thousandth lien."

"Not much of an excuse when it was lien _I_ was winning, in the first place." She tapped his cheek with a small stack of hundred lien cards.

"Entirely due to my strategy."

"Which you forgot the end of." Nodding slowly, Adam closed his eyes in thought and leaned back. As his hand stealthily reached for the head of the bed, he contemplated his next response. Just as Weiss smirked, believing the argument won, Adam slapped her with a pillow. He decided upon the course of action he was most familiar with: violence.

* * *

"Aaaaand we're back! Did'ja miss us?"

It was only when Yang and Ruby threw open the door to find the two laughing with pillows in hand and thousands of lien worth of cards scattered about that Weiss and Adam realized what they had forgotten: going on a vacation in the first place.

* * *

 **A/N: This chapter was originally going to be the second half of the second chapter(of the second volume), but, the club scene just got away from me entirely. So, I decided that it might be better as a mention or just the first part of the third chapter, but, then it just didn't fit. Primarily because it just kept growing.**

 **So, in the same vein as 1-0, consider this almost like an... epilogue to Putting The Band Back Together. Except it's twice the size of 1-0.  
**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	22. V2: Best Day Ever

**A/N: Good news: plot kicks up starting now. Bad news: I fully admit that it still starts off kind of slow and close to the original V2, but I assure you around halfway through all of these small changes finally culminate into a _rapid_ departure from the rails.**

* * *

 **Best Day Ever**

* * *

This was precisely what Adam feared.

["Murder at Tukson's Book Trade, One Dead."]

The White Fang wanted to clean up loose ends. Bar special occasions—such as being an officer like himself or Blake—so long as you did not rat out your fellow faunus or aim to anger the White Fang, those who left would be allowed to without trouble. They were traitors and cowards, but, they could leave, so long as they were willing to bear that on their conscience.

But such was clearly no longer the case. The two had metaphorically dusted their footprints, but how long would it be before they found out exactly where he and Blake were? He was surrounded by Huntsmen both trained and in-training; he was safe. Blake, on the other hand, was surrounded by the White Fang: he had eyes and ears everywhere in Menagerie, and if they were to get the idea that Blake was the only thing keeping their leader away...

Adam knew most of all just how dangerous the White Fang could be, even if they were led by his lieutenant rather than him. More importantly, he knew how desperate they could get for publicity and recognition: he had taught the that the more daunting a task was, the more dangerous they would be if they actually succeeded. This meant that it was not just Blake who was in danger: all of RWAY—all of _Beacon_ —was at risk.

Something needed to be done, but what? Who was even the culprit? Signs of a brief struggle and blunt trauma combined with a close-range, shotgun-style weapon being used signified a Huntsman-style weapon, but it was unfamiliar: was this Sienna Khan attempting to force the Vale branch back into the fold? Torchwick? There were too many variables—

"What'cha doin'?" Yang called in a sing-song voice and snapped him back to reality. Scanning through his Scroll during lunch proved to be a mistake.

"Nothing." Adam closed it before any questions could arise. "Just looking through the news." He'd spent so much time setting up his lunch, only to wind up staring at his Scroll the entire time. He needed to be more careful: arousing suspicion would only increase the chances of sticking out.

"A whole feast and you choose to go surfing on the web?" Yang leaned over just in time to catch a grape flung over from JNPR's table in her mouth. "Lame!" She wasn't wrong, at least: the last day before school began heralded a grand feast of any food one desired or requested. As one who had spent years surviving off of military-grade rations either out of necessity or fairness towards the troops that still did, Adam had taken advantage of this to construct the greatest submarine sandwich he'd ever crafted. One that had stayed untouched.

One that would stay untouched as Ruby hobbled over and dropped onto the table a binder bigger than most encyclopedias. She cleared her throat and sprung into a speech that she clearly practiced way too much:

"Four-score and seven minutes ago, I had a dream! A dream that, one day, the four of us would finally come together as a team and have the most fun that anyone has ever had... ever!"

Weiss was too busy staring at the binder to listen. "Did you steal my binder?!"

"I am not a crook."

"What _are_ you on about?" Adam grumbled.

"Sis is saying that we should start off our next semester with a _Yang!_ " Yang declared with a dumb grin. "Eh, eh, guys? Get it?" Adam cracked a smile when, rather than grapes, an apple promptly bounced off of Yang's head, instead. Well-deserved.

"I happened to notice our team's been a little too far apart, and with the second semester coming up, exchange students coming in and the festival at the end of the year, now is the perfect time to change that! Buuut, we only have one day left before classes, so I came up with a wonderful series of events for us today!" Ruby explained excitedly, her giddy smile never fading. Adam just couldn't match that happiness: he needed to contact Blake, find connections, make sure everyone would be safe...

"I'm going to have to sit this one out. Besides, Weiss and I had two entire weeks to become friends."

"And _as_ your new friend, I say that whatever Ruby has planned, we should do so as a team!" Even while 'friendly', Weiss just couldn't help but contradict him. Adam couldn't blame her, of course, he would've done the exact same thing for the exact same reason, but this was important! Taking Adam's frown and furrowed brow as playful rather than genuine annoyance, Weiss stood up, turned to her team with a smile and continued:

"In fact, I for one believe that—" With her eyes on them, however, Weiss never noticed the pie heading towards her until it was too late.

And then, all Hell broke loose.

* * *

Adam was _certain_ it had only been a matter of two minutes. As to how one half of the tables had gotten scattered, the other half had been stacked up in a precarious fortress with soda machines as towers, and food covered the floors, walls and windows in such a short period, Adam hadn't the slightest clue. If the so-called Ice Queen of Beacon and someone as intimidating as himself were not still seated at their own table, it probably would've been yanked aside in the war, too. As it stood, however, they were the neutral island of stability in a world war.

And from that war spawned only six final combatants: the entirety of JNPR, who had conquered the table fortress, Ruby and Yang. Two against three, because Adam would just as quickly consider that raw swordfish on the ground a valid combatant in a fight between these first-year giants rather than Jaune.

"This assault on my teammate shall not stand! We will fight in the cafeteria! We will fight on the tables! But we will never surrender!" Ruby squeaked threateningly and led her sister into the fray. Behind them, she'd left a fuming Weiss and a befuddled Adam.

"Those two will be the death of us." Adam muttered under his breath as watermelons rained down like artillery.

"At this rate, they'll manage to take themselves out before that happens. Ugh, if that pie had gotten into my hair, I'd have done it myself!" Weiss tried to brush the mess surrounding them aside enough to actually return to eating.

"Do you think this detachment from them was what Ruby was talking about in the first place?" Adam leaned out of the way of an entire pizza being flung like a shield.

"There's a distinct difference between not being emotionally close to your teammates and not following them on such an inane battle." A glyph caught Jaune as a single bat from Ruby launched him across the cafeteria. Jaune didn't even have time to thank Weiss before he was sent careening into the fray again.

"So, why are we still here? You aren't thinking of joining, after all, are you?" A spin of his sheathed blade knocked an incoming plate of salad off-course. Adam finally picked up his sandwich: he'd learned quickly that planning on an empty stomach solved no problems.

"Don't be foolish, Adam, _someone_ is going to have to drag them out of this mess, once they're done. I would never partake in something so childi—" Her declaration shot up into an unladylike squeal as Pyrrha and Ren crashed into the table, knocking over drinks and bottles of condiments alike. Weiss had just barely avoided spilling her coffee by having had it in her hand. The two members of JNPR looked around in a brief daze as Yang laughed triumphantly on the other side of the cafeteria.

Just as Weiss set her cup down, Ren reached back and snatched a pair of carrots before jumping back in, striking the cup and sending it splashing across the heiress and her hair. Searching for a weapon, Pyrrha grabbed the first sturdy food she saw and dashed off towards Yang.

The two sat in silence, Weiss covered in coffee, Adam with now-empty hands after Pyrrha stole the sandwich right out of them. Adam narrowed his eyes.

"... Take those two out. I'll handle Nora."

* * *

"Where is your Queen! Is she too afraid of the Turkey Lord?!" Yang laughed triumphantly as Pyrrha and Ren rushed her. She prepared herself for the foodfight of her life right when a sheen of ketchup raced under her opponents' feet, sending them slipping and sliding with no control right towards her. Yang caught a glimpse of Weiss with a bottle in her hand just before she swung at the quickest of the two: Ren. The resulting blast sent him flying through the wall and out of the fight.

"It took you long enough, Ice Queen! I've been waiting all day!" She cheered. Little did she know, as Pyrrha got her footing only to wind up in fierce bread-on-bread combat with Ruby, that Nora had climbed all the way back up to the top of her table-castle. While the others were busy, she'd constructed a mighty hammer made from a flagpole and watermelon, and Yang's little callout marked her as the first to get it tested out on!

Nora took a step and threw herself high into the air over the war, swung her hammer back and had Yang right in her sights, never noticing the bottle propelled by a jet of mustard until it smacked her in the face. Adam followed behind it in a black blur and swatted Nora from the skies with a loaf of bread. Stunned from the sudden crash into tables, she barely flipped herself up in time for Adam to slam down with the loaf stabbed right where she would have been. Adam jumped back as Nora swung for him and landed upon a table, spinning his bread in one hand and kicking a bottle of ketchup to occupy his other.

Adam was faintly worried as his mind began to treat this as a true battle. Then again, considering how dangerous Nora was managing to make a watermelon on a stick look, it was just that: faint. Nora followed him up onto the table, each swing of her heavy food weapon leading into another that had Adam leaping, leaning and ducking away, returning fire the best he could with bread and shots of ketchup like. As their bout grew more intense, however, the table wobbled more and more, until no more than two legs were on the ground at a time.

With a final, mighty swing, Nora aimed to send Adam straight to the skies, but Weiss flew in just in time to stab her side with a swordfish. The good news was that Nora's strike didn't hit either of them.

The bad news was that she twisted and struck the table, instead, blasting the three off in different directions: Adam to the far wall, Nora right into the soda machines, sending cans flying through the air and pouring onto the ground, and Weiss not across a table full of food, but into and _through_ a pillar.

"Weiss!" Ruby gasped and flipped away from her combat with Pyrrha to skate down the tables on a lunch tray. Adam groaned and forced himself to his feet as Ruby slid beside the heiress. Adam threw a table onto its side as cans of soda came raining down.

 _"Avenge me..."_ Weiss whispered, dazed from the blast, then fell limp. As Ruby cried out for the fallen, Adam's rationality briefly attempted to remind him that this was a food fight. The oft-ignored part of him that actually was having fun, however, quickly silenced it. This was personal, now!

"Ruby, we need a plan!" He called over his shoulder, now having to rise and strike down the cans with swings of bread and well-placed blasts of ketchup. Yang was pinned down by the explosive firepower behind an upturned table. Suddenly, the rain stopped, and both Nora and Pyrrha began to glow with their respective colors. "Now would be fine!"

Ruby's eyes scanned across the floor. Soda cans both thrown by JNPR and those that simply had come flying out from the machines lay scattered across the entire cafeteria. One suddenly burst as another can rolled by and simply tapped it. Of course! The perfect scheme!

"Yang, hit the floor!" Ruby ordered.

"Kinda doin' that right now, sis!"

"No, no, no, I mean _literally_ _!_ Punch the ground as hard as you can!" The hum of electricity brought their attention back to Pyrrha and Nora: the latter had placed her hand on the former's back, charging her magnetism to new heights. Twin snakes of metal and soda coiled up to the very ceiling of the cafeteria, preparing what would surely be the final blow. "Now!"

Just as the snakes uncoiled and lashed out for them, Yang raised her fist, let her anger run loose, and smashed her turkey-clad fist into the ground. A golden shockwave sent everything from soda cans to tables into the air. With Pyrrha knocked off balance by the sudden force, the wave slowed and lost shape, exactly what Ruby was waiting for.

"Adam, catch!" She turned and tossed him his sandwich—much heavier than mere, bare loaves of bread—and bolted off with Semblance in full effect, little more than a blur as she raced past the floating cans. A whirlwind formed behind her, sweeping plates, cans and tables in a swirling rush of food and metal. Too weak from their little team attack, Pyrrha and Nora were swept up, but Ruby was not done, there: she abruptly banked around, turning a tunnel of wind into a full-on tornado of rose petals, food and JNPR. Had Adam not grabbed Weiss, she likely would've been yanked into it.

But, there was no time to be impressed just yet. With Pyrrha, Nora and, soon, Jaune trapped in the skies, the three were perfect targets. Chuckling to himself, every bit of red on Adam from his hair to the tomatoes on his meal began to glow brightly. He let himself be dragged into the wind, twisted in midair and swung for the well-shaken cans of soda.

It was only as the world went red that Adam realized he might be in the blast zone.

* * *

The sound of fizzing still rang in Adam's ears as he shakily stood up and wiped at his eyes. For the briefest moment, Adam was afraid he'd somehow gone blind, only able to see a myriad of colors for all eternity, until waving his hand in front of his face assured him otherwise. No, instead, the entire cafeteria now looked like one giant abstract art piece. Eight blobs of color pushed themselves up from the debris, some giggling to themselves, others just trying to figure out what just happened.

Adam felt a chuckle building up, as well... right until he remembered that, with Ren knocked out of the hall entirely, there should have only been _seven_ of them.

The eighth multicolored mess cleared her throat and took off her glasses, revealing a cold, livid glare that could kill a Goliath on the spot. Glynda Goodwitch stalked slowly towards the now-silent students. There were very few times in his life where Adam truly found himself afraid. This was certainly one of them.

"... Well, looks like we're in a pretty... _sticky situation_ , huh?" Yang looked between her teammates expectantly. Stifled chortles and snickers filled the room as the first lash of Goodwitch's crop washed the hall in a rush of mist. By the second lash that brought the tables and plates back to their rightful place, it was full-on laughter. The third was likely going to be aimed at one of them, until Ozpin's hand fell upon the professor's shoulder.

"Let it go, Glynda..."

* * *

If it had been anyone else laughing at him, Adam would've executed them. As it stood however, hearing Blake laughing like this for the first time in what may have been over a year would've been worth getting into a mess like this many times over.

"Wh-what happened to you! It looks like you blew up a paint factory!" Blake spoke between giggles she tried and failed to muffle with her hands. When they had last spoke, they'd decided to have a video call when they both had the time. It'd been too long since he'd seen her face. With the excuse of needing to go dry himself out, he'd made his way back to his little spot high on the dorms' slanted roof away from the world. It was better than getting his bed messed up, anyway.

"As it turns out, a food fight gives the same results." Much like how Blake couldn't hide her giggles, Adam couldn't hold back his smile if he tried.

"A _food fight?_ Just who are you and what have you done with Adam?" She asked mirthfully.

"I should be asking what you've done with Blake: I don't think I've seen you smile for this long in an eternity." Adam waited until just before Blake was going to respond to add: "Well, besides when you were reading that one book of yours... what was it called? Samurai of Love? Ninjas of Romance?" Her giggles quickly turned to nervous laughter, and her cheeks reddened.

"I-I'm not sure what you're talking about."

"Odd, perhaps I was mistaken. Though, I did hear it had a sequel..." Her ears twitched beneath her bow.

"... It does?"

As the time flew by, Adam found himself regretting more and more speaking of the actual reason he was desperate to contact her, this night. When their conversations had finally begun to taper off, one by one, he decided it was best to get it over with now.

"Blake," His somber tone dissipated the joyous mood in an instant. What was once the subtle, happy smile and gleam in her eye he grew to love had become the intense gaze and frown he'd grown used to over the past year. "Before you leave, there's something important I must inform you of: the White Fang are hunting down those who leave. _All_ of them." Her eyes widened.

"Be careful. You might be near the former leadership, but there is no telling how far the White Fang will go to send a message." To Adam's surprise, her lips turned up into the slightest smile.

"I'll be fine, Adam. Trust me."

"Are you certain?"

A light chuckle escaped Blake. "Yes, Adam, I'm certain. You don't need to protect me anymore, like when you used to follow me off-base."

"Who told you about that?"

"You really weren't as sneaky as you thought you were."

Adam let out a huff. "No matter. Just—"

" 'Stay safe', I know, Adam, it's how you've been saying goodbye for the past month."

"Am I really that predictable?"

"I know you, Adam..." Her smile returned, soft and wistful. "You really do look happier than you used to. Try not to let this affect you: remember, you're there to make friends, not enemies."

"You giving orders to me? You've grown up so fast." He pretended to wipe at his eye.

"Bye, Adam." With a last smile and roll of her eyes, Blake ended the call. Adam stared at the blank Scroll for a few moments after, then quietly closed it and slipped it into his pocket. He sighed and turned a deadly glare behind him.

"Do you always spy on your teammates?" With a surprised squeak, Ruby ducked down on the other side of the roof. She'd been caught red-handed. For a brief moment, Adam had thought that Ruby had fled. He'd just retrieved his weapon and got up to his feet when he caught her peeking out again.

"... She's right, you know! You look a lot happier than you used to! Especially when you're talking to her or were talking to her and the shower's-ready-and-you'renotmadatme!" Ruby tried to force out a smile as Adam stalked closer. She let out a nervous, shy giggle, stared up at him with those silver eyes, and Adam's growing anger fizzled. The edge of his lips twitched up.

"You might have a point." He really was in a better mood, these days, Adam admitted to himself. He slid down the other side of the roof past her, but paused at the edge. "And stop eavesdropping."

* * *

The shower was ice-cold, but Adam was used to that. It kept his thoughts straight, and that was what he needed, right now: the White Fang was moving, there was an alliance between Torchwick and the White Fang that their underlings knew nothing of, and now his organization was slicing away all of their loose ends. He needed answers. He needed to _act._

By the time he'd walked out of the bathroom, Adam had a plan in mind. Unfortunately, immediately tossing his clothes aside and going for the door did not go unnoticed by his teammates. He'd just grabbed the handle when Weiss spoke up:

"And just where are you going this late?" She questioned from the top bunk, having claimed it from Yang during the summer break she was gone. The eyes of RWAY were on him.

"I need to make a call," Adam replied plainly.

Weiss narrowed her eyes. "Is that right? Well, be quick about it! It's almost past curfew, and I won't have you waking us up _or_ getting us in trouble." She wagged her finger at him. Only flashing a smirk in return, he left, not noticing Ruby's suspicious look as the door closed behind him.

* * *

"You really do always spy on us, don't you? Or am I a special occasion?" Little more than a silhouette on the same roof watching over Beacon, Adam questioned Ruby with his back to her. He was clearly planning on going out: he had a hood up and his hands stuffed into his pockets.

"I was just getting a little worried, that's all. You've been going out a lot at night..."

"I've been calling Blake more often." Adam countered.

"And not coming back until the morning..." Ruby continued.

"They are long calls, Ruby." His voice was hard and cold, subtly warning her not to go further. Remembering Ruby wasn't a very subtle girl, however, he made it more clear for her. "Calls I would prefer to be making. Alone."

"Nope."

"Excuse me?"

"Nope! You're hiding something that's stressing you out, and I'm not gonna leave until you tell me."

"This is not your business, Ruby—"

"Nope!"

"I will tell you _later—_ "

"Nnnope!" Ruby skipped closer, instead, an innocent, cheery—if not rather mischievous—smile on her face. Adam scowled and closed his eyes: it would be so easy to just leap now, but the only thing it would do now is postpone the inevitable.

"If you would just stay away for one night—"

"Nope!" Why did she have to be so stubborn!

"Fine!" Adam surrendered and finally whirled around to face the young girl. "If you want to know, I'll tell you... just this once."

A black White Fang mask obscured his face.

* * *

In a dark, damp cell, far from civilization and the Grimm alike, a prisoner's eyes shot open. Information flooded his mind, synapses flared, and calculations ran themselves at a breakneck speed in a desperate attempt to make up for lost time. He flung himself from his bed, landing like the very beasts he controlled, and looked around. Something was off. Through his bars lay darkness and shifting figures, languid and lost. They were unknowing to even such a massive change in their very bodies: a feeling of being refreshed, of being born anew, of being... alive!

 _Aura._ Yes, that was it: his soul finally stretching its legs and reaching for its surroundings after being bound for so many years. Those degenerates in the rest of prison may have let hope slip through their fingers, but not him, no. He knew his time would come! And that time was now: his aura would have only returned to him if the suppressing shackles at his ankles were turned off, but they never were. Not unless you were to be executed, but they knew his mind was far too great for that.

But who? His aura pulsed out, scanning the world around him just as his lone eye did.

A door squealed as it was forced open. The intruder drew something across the bars of the many cells, and the ringing finally woke the devolved masses from their slumber and stupor. Cries of confusion and begs to be let free rung out into the humid air, but the intruder cared not for them. It strode with purpose. _Resolve._

And then, he saw him: raking a cane across the bars, a tall man with fiery, orange hair in a white coat strolled into view and stopped, just in front of his cell. The man had a simple, white hat with a red band going across it. Yes, he knew exactly who this was before he leaned forward to peer into his domain. The question, however, was why: why was Roman Torchwick here?

Even when able to see only one eye, the other covered by his swept hair, the prisoner could tell Torchwick had not slept. He could try to hide it with that garish mascara, but he couldn't hide it from a trained eye. Torchwick smirked halfheartedly, took a step back and raised his cane at the door. Two explosions rung out, obliterating not just the lock but most of the door. The noise and lights turned mere cries into a primal frenzy outside: freedom so close pushed the prisoners into their most primitive of states.

But not he. No, he stared at his intruder, eye-to-eye, even as he casually nudged the twisted remains of the door down.

"Looks like your prayers have been answered, pal." Torchwick called halfheartedly to him.

"What do you want with me?" The prisoner hissed.

"Heh, pal, what I want stopped mattering a long time ago," He mumbled under his breath before returning to the question at hand. "Looks like my boss has taken a bit of an interest in hiring you, and, well, for your sake, I'd agree. But, first!" Torchwick leaned forward on his cane with a slim, bitter smile.

"Doctor Merlot, what's your _favorite_ fairy tale?"

* * *

 **A/N: Fair warning, as time goes on there will be slight changes throughout the fic beyond just what Adam's arrival and the butterflies sent off from them caused. This is mainly just to clean up inconsistencies or just make things dramatically more fitting for the fic: writing makes any kind of plothole a lot more apparent than when you're watching it.  
**

 **For instance, did anyone notice how the CCT was in Vale, then connected to the ballroom in Beacon, _then_ Ozpin's tower? When you're watching, it's easy to miss, but when actually putting it in words, it becomes glaringly obvious.**

 **But, with that, the main plot finally comes back! Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	23. V2: Queen of Hearts

**Queen of Hearts**

* * *

Another night, another raid for the White Fang, but it already felt off. The young officer took a look around the warehouse they were moving their Dust into. It'd gone off without a hitch. Even the rookies had done their parts flawlessly, and you don't get as far as he did without knowing that _nothing_ went exactly to plan. He adjusted his mask and made his way towards the entrance. Something always went wrong: it could've been as small as a rookie dropping their mask in the middle of a heist, or as bad as the police being competent enough to set up a bust, it didn't matter, _something_ always went wrong.

Them's the rules.

Maybe that's why, when the lights shut off and drowned the warehouse in the darkness of night, the officer was happy.

"It's the Ace!" Well, so much for that.

Flashes of gunfire illuminated a single figure leaping between his soldiers, striking at them with swift feet and that pair of simple rifles. The officer, however, slipped out of the building altogether: they'd brought some specialists just for that little nuisance. He raced across to a second warehouse and flung the door open.

Every specialist laid on the ground, unconscious, all six of them. There didn't look like there was much of a struggle: they were caught off guard. Each equal to a huntsman-in-training, taken out so easily? He should've at least _heard_ the clash!

The sound of battle behind him slowed to a stop. His hand trembled as it reached for his blade. Yes, he would've heard it... unless both buildings were attacked at the same time.

He spun on his heels, blade at the ready as he looked around the alley between the warehouses.

Someone tapped his shoulder. With a cry of surprise, the officer spun and swung, but no one was there. Another tap, another swing, another miss. But on the third, he was ready, spinning with a swing that finally struck his target: a figure clad in red. With a distinctly feminine yelp, she jumped back and readied her weapon: a deadly-looking polearm with a blade in the rough shape of a heart. Before he could bring his blade up again, however, a pair of heavy bullets slammed into his back, shattering his aura and sending him to the ground.

"Be more careful, Queen." The Ace spoke from behind him. The young officer struggled to look up at this second attacker: most of her body was hidden by a large, red cloak, and her face covered with both a simple red bandana over her mouth and a pair of crimson shades to match. Just from her size, though, she looked like a student the vigilante just grabbed off the street and threw a half-baked disguise on. The Ace dragged him up before he could hear any reply and growled:

"I want answers. _Now._ "

* * *

"Oz, you and I both know _why_ I brought those men." It had taken three minutes before such a pleasant conversation between himself and General Ironwood turned bitter: a new record, in Ozpin's book. Sipping at his coffee, Ozpin mulled over how he would handle this common situation: Ironwood might have been a friend of his, but, he had the ever so annoying tendency to turn every talk into a clash of philosophies. Perhaps it was an inevitability for two so opposed to find themselves like this. So different were their outlooks that it even could be told from their clothes: Ozpin's emerald sweater and forest-green vest and suit looked positively casual compared to the stark-white uniform of an Atlesian officer, broken up only by his vest and tie.

Ozpin sighed and set his mug down. He had no plans on hiding how tired he was of this routine. "We are in a time of _peace._ Shows of power like these will only give off the wrong impression."

Ironwood's tone grew soft and imploring: it seemed he was changing up his strategy. "But if what Qrow said is true—" But not enough.

"If what Qrow said is true," Ozpin interrupted him. "The Vytal Festival is still arriving soon. It would be best not to scare people by bringing hundreds of soldiers halfway across the continent."

"I'm just being cautious."

"As am I," He caught a brief narrowing of the general's eyes, but continued unabated. "Which is why we will continue training the best Huntsmen and Huntresses we can."

"Are you sure?" Ironwood spoke darkly. Ah, there was the usual, serious nature. "The news of Huntsmen vigilantes and _criminals_ say otherwise." The ticking of clocks were the only thing breaking the tense silence between them. Ozpin took a slow drink from his mug.

"How much has Glynda told you?"

"Enough for me to be worried. You're playing a dangerous game, Ozpin." Ironwood turned to leave. "So, before you continue, ask yourself: are you prepared to face the consequences of losing?" He took his leave.

"I hope it never comes to that."

* * *

"Hello? Helloooo, Remnant to Atlas? Anyone there?" Yang flicked a tiny statuette of a Nevermore onto Ruby's head, snapping her out of her sleepy trance. "Not like you to fall asleep during a game of Remnant, buuuut a free win's a free win..." She said with a grin, already beginning to slide a card from her hand.

"Nonono, I'm awake, I'm awake! I play... uh..." She suddenly grinned. "Android Infiltrator! Looks like I get to copy a card in your hand, and since Atlas is a part of Mantle, her special effect makes you discard it, too! And I think I'll be grabbing... the Huntsman of the Four Blades you stole last turn! _Beep beep bang!_ " Ruby laughed triumphantly as Yang reached into her hand... and slammed down a different card altogether.

"Pretty sneaky, sis, too bad you activated my trap card: Hacked By Mistrali! Now your Android Infiltrator's working for me! Show me the goods!" Ruby's head hung low as she gave her hand to Yang, pouting about Mistral being 'O-P'.

"Ooooh, is that an Atlesian Air Fleet I see?" Yang daintily snatched the card. Ruby collapsed in tears, her plans ruined.

"Alright, Weiss, you're up!" Adam faded in and out of the game as Yang called to Weiss: there was too much on his mind, right now. Nothing was adding up with the White Fang, and, now, he might've lost Blake because of it.

* * *

It had barely been two days after the food fight. Blake had called in the middle of class, luckily during a lecture where Professor Peach could not hear his Scroll vibrating. He'd decided to simply call her immediately after: with the time difference between Vale and Menagerie, Adam could not blame Blake for not getting the hours exactly right. Even so, Adam could not fight off the pang of guilt for ignoring her when the Scroll went still.

Then, it rang again.

And again.

Worried looks from his team had unfortunately drawn Professor Peach's gaze and ire to him, but, to Adam's surprise, she was very understanding when he explained that he had a friend overseas who might not have understood he would be in class at this time. It might've taken levying his attentiveness in class—something Adam doubted he could do again—but he was allowed to at least briefly step out and inform her. He'd be back before a minute's time.

When the first thing Adam heard on the other side was Blake's sobbing, the class stopped existing in his mind.

"Blake? Blake! What's the matter? What's happening?!" Adam demanded to know as he raced through the halls, looking for somewhere, _anywhere_ he could get some privacy, and fast.

"A-Adam, I think... I think they found me, they're all dead, oh God..." Blake was panicking, and he could hear the constant rustle of leaves and subtle crack of branches: she was running from something.

" _Who_ is dead? Your parents?" He swept into a storage closet: it would have to do. If Blake's parents were killed, it was the worst case scenario: if the White Fang had gone that far, then they cared far more about their message than the consequences it would bring. An assault on Beacon would be inevitable.

"No, no, my friends, th-they killed all of them!" She cried out.

"Blake. I need you to calm down." They'd get nowhere fast if he didn't know the situation. He knew he should've gone with her! They sat in silence for a few moments, only broken up by a soft sob or the rustle of leaves.

"I was out with a few friends of mine, we were hunting Grimm on the outskirts. There was no warning, there were just so many Ursa, but they _ignored_ me: they only attacked my friends. Then the gunfire came, a-and..." She began to sob again. Adam slumped down against a shelf, heart racing. "The Ursa, we could handle, but this Huntsman... he had to be an assassin, he'd killed half of us before I even saw him."

"What did he look like?" Adam questioned far more harshly than he had intended to. He winced at hearing Blake gasp softly at the viciousness in his tone.

"He... he..." Blake fell quiet. "I can't remember... h-he fought with wind Dust, though." What was once sadness had begun to fade into confusion, something Adam could understand: if she were that surprised that she couldn't remember her assailant's face, she must have been in a situation to see it clearly. Something else was on Adam's mind, however, a question that a part of him pleaded not to ask at all.

"Blake, who sent you out to hunt Grimm?" The second question, why would someone send what was all but a _princess_ to fight Grimm, was implied, but unspoken. The silence from the other end only gave Adam's mind more time to think on the situation: she was clearly still out in the wilderness. She must have called him immediately after the event itself, most likely, but, how was she doing so in the first place? Her parents had a small relay linked to the CCT—no small item to get—but in the forests?

"I-I..." Blake suddenly let out a sharp gasp, and her Scroll hit the ground. Adam's blood ran cold, and any doubt vanished from his mind. An almost imperceptible _crack_ from his Scroll warned him of just how tightly he was holding it as he listened and silently prayed.

 _"Are you alright, Miss? I heard a huge commotion over here!"_ An unfamiliar, feminine voice quietly played over the phone.

 _"I'm fine! Did you find anyone else? We should start moving, it's too dangerous to be here."_ Blake's voice was muffled but still recognizable as she implored the stranger to leave.

 _"Hm? Oh, my partners already cleared out those Grimm, don't worry. We found a few others, though... it's how we found you. They said one of their team ran off right when the Grimm attacked."_ Adam's brow furrowed: she was casual. _Too_ casual about this.

 _"W-what? I_ _didn't..._ " Blake jumped to more important matters: _"Are they okay?"_ Silence. Sobbing. What Blake and the stranger said afterwards, he couldn't make out. But Adam could hear a third voice, a male, calling to them, before the call abruptly ended.

* * *

It was the last he'd heard from Blake in a week. He could fool himself into thinking that she was fine for the first few, but as the nights went on without a response, his hope grew dimmer and dimmer. If she was fine, she would have called or answered, by now. Nothing.

He needed eyes in Menagerie. He needed to _be_ in Menagerie. If he could get in contact with—

"Hey, uh, you alright, Adam?" Yang's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. His eyes flicked up from his hand to find his team staring at him with various looks of concern. If he was not still thinking about how to reestablish his network of connections in order to save his dearest friend, Adam might have found it touching.

"Yes," Adam stated coldly enough for it to be false to even a child. Like a loyal secretary, his mind informed him of what he was half-listening to during his thoughts: Weiss had blindly listened to Yang, getting the majority of her forces destroyed, Jaune was begging to play in a foolish attempt to likely get closer to Weiss, and that same heiress appeared to have told them he was a faunus. He'd get back to that.

"I am in a good position... it will be difficult for you to mess this up, Jaune." He placed his cards face-down. "I have matters I need to attend to. Sorry." With that dry apology that only managed to perturb his teammates more, Adam abruptly stood up, grabbed his blade and left. None noticed the very light tap to Ruby's chair as he passed.

"I'll... uh, I'll go see what's up with him. Pyrrha, you're the Queen of Atlas now!" Ruby zipped off before anyone else could get a word in, edgewise, ignoring the suspicious glare from her sister burning at her back the entire time.

"... Sooo, Snow Angel, how about an alliance?" Jaune grinned at her as he took Adam's former seat.

Weiss and Yang looked at one another. The heiress nodded. "Sandstorm."

"Aw, come on..."

* * *

"We need to set up a meeting with an old partner of mine," Adam explained as he and Ruby made their way through the dorms. Ruby, however, was a lot less focused on what Adam was saying and more on how he was looking: he was completely rigid, marching as much as he was walking, and his eyes were constantly scanning his surroundings. Adam looked like a soldier... which, well, he was, but he tended to hide that fact a lot better than this. Ruby noticed that students had kept their distance as they walked along, especially with how tight of a grip Adam had on his weapon.

"Yeah, okay, Adam, I get it, but what's going on? You've been acting strange all week, and it's really gotten us worried," Ruby tried to turn the conversation back to figuring out what was _really_ happening for the third time since they left the library.

"Ilia. She may not be fond of me, but she'll listen." It wouldn't have been so bad if he didn't just act like she hadn't said anything at all, Ruby thought to herself. The two entered their room. Without warning, he spun and threw Wilt and Blush into his bed in frustration. "Blake is _hurt,_ Ruby. Hurt or dead, and I wasn't there, _that's_ the problem!"

Ruby hadn't even flinched at the sudden movement. The others might've seen her as a child, but she was growing all too capable of reading them: Ruby knew he was keeping something locked up. "Adam, tell me what happened."

She didn't mind Adam's glare when, by the end of his explanation, she was smiling.

"There's still a big chance she's fine! You said two people found her and asked if she was alright, didn't you?" Ruby pressed: the silver lining in this situation was too bright not to see.

"I don't know if they were allies, or if they were just trying to get her guard down..."

"That's why you wanted to contact your friend, right? Ilia?"

Adam nodded. "Yes. She's young, but as a chameleon faunus, she was one of the best in surveillance we had. There is a problem, however," He sighed and brought a hand through his hair, knocking off his hat. "She's still with the White Fang, and although she was our friend, she's an officer, like I was."

"Well, if she was... _Blake's_ friend, she must've been a nice person!"

Adam cracked a smile at the subtle barb. "You could say that, yes. If we play our cards right, we could get her to defect if Blake hasn't gotten her to do so, already. We just need to get her out of Menagerie where she's being watched, first." He lifted up his bed and grabbed a notebook hidden beneath it. Flipping it open, it was full of schedules, names, maps, everything you'd need to hunt the White Fang.

"Get Ilia here and alone, and we could not only find out what she knows, but convince her to help you find Blake!" With a quick hop to her bed, she grabbed a notebook of her own from under her pillow: it wasn't like anyone was going to risk touching that death trap to get to it.

"She'll have a contingent of trained soldiers with her, they'll need to be dealt with quickly." He flipped to an open page, grabbed a pen and started jotting down an outline. And so the planning began and continued on for over an hour: plausible meeting places, ideas for attack depending on what method of transportation she used, possible times she'd arrive, everything.

As a brief moment of quiet fell between the two and Adam looked over their combined notes, he had to admit that Ruby really did have some potential. For a fifteen year old, she had quite the head on her shoulders, although Yang and Weiss did appear to have some trouble taking her seriously. Not that he could blame them, of course: not everyone served in a military unit where such skills were expected to rise at this young an age.

"I've got it!" Ruby suddenly exclaimed with a innocent grin, then scrambled for her Scroll. It was strange, in fact, to see someone so innocent have this level of tactical intelligence. As the young girl zipped across the room searching for something only to sit back down with a plastic cup pressed against her mouth and Scroll to her ear, however, Adam admittedly had doubts of his own as to what, exactly, she could be planning, with that.

"Hello, Ilia!" Adam felt and looked like he'd had the wind knocked out of him. Eyes wide in disbelief, he lunged to snatch her Scroll away.

 _"Who is this? How did you get this number?"_ It was a futile action. He froze with his fingers just within reach as Ilia's voice came from the speaker.

"That is none of your concern," Ruby replied, keeping her voice in the most threatening tone she could manage—approximately that of a small dog's—and distorted by that stupid cup. "What might be is the safe return of your friend Blake."

 _"... And just what do_ you _know about her?"_ Ilia sounded smug.

"More than you, my friend. I know she was in Menagerie..."

 _"What? How! She... we haven't seen heads or tails of her."_ Ruby's eyes widened. Adam's blood went cold: Blake _wasn't in Menagerie?_ Where was she this entire time!

"I-Interesting. Well, if you want to know more, why don't we set up a meeting? How about Vale?"

 _"How do I know you aren't just lying!"_ She was panicking. Adam wondered if it was from genuine fear of her friends, or fear of what would happen if she had failed to keep track of her, but more importantly, wondered just what the White Fang knew about Blake if she was not even in Menagerie in the first place. Without thinking, he snatched the Scroll.

"Her information comes from a very valid source." And without thinking, his tone had twisted from that of Adam Belladonna, member of RWAY, to Adam Taurus, terrorist leader: icy, commanding, and with a tinge of desperation too small to be uncontrolled, but too large to be ignored. "I will contact you with further instructions, later." He left no room for question.

 _"A-Adam..."_ Ilia breathed out. _"Wait, where have you been? Sienna's been silent on you after Blake—"_

"If you do not respond, there _will_ be consequences," Adam growled to interrupt her.. It was a power play, plain and simple: throw around his former weight and the fact that she didn't mention him being a traitor, and perhaps she'd fall back into the old mindset of when he _did_ have that much power. As he hung up, silence filled the room. Ruby stared at him with a bright, expectant grin.

"... If I wasn't a changed man, I would strangle you," Adam coldly told her. "What were you thinking?" As if the weight of what failure would have been struck her only now, Ruby shrank back, her smile crashing down into a guilty frown and eyes turning downwards.

"W-well, I had... I thought maybe if we acted like _we_ knew where Blake was, we could trick her into saying what she knew because she'd want to find her, or she'd mess up and say where Blake really was if she thought we were lying... I didn't think Blake wouldn't be where you said she was at _all!_ " She tried to explain herself.

"And what if they were the ones who had captured her in the first place, Ruby?" Faced with Blake having been lying to him the entire time on top of what would would happen if Ilia simply turned and ratted them out at the earliest opportunity, Adam found his voice carrying an arctic chill. Cold fury lined every word, even if all of it wasn't directed at Ruby, herself.

"Then... Ilia's her friend, right? She'd want to protect Blake!" Ruby declared with such innocence that Adam found his rage paradoxically peaking and shattering at the same time. He looked up to find her silver eyes staring back at him, full of determination and hurt both. Adam sighed.

"That plan was simple, foolish, overly optimistic... and successful." The edge of his mouth curled up into a smile as the frozen edge in his tone melted away. "Well done. Just _warn_ me next time, alright?" Her expression bounced up into a sunny smile.

"Got it, partner! So, what's next?"

Adam frowned as he looked down at their notes. That was a great question. Ilia may be on their side, but now Blake could literally be anywhere on _Remnant,_ and he was no closer to finding the reason behind Torchwick's reason for being with the White Fang. Without Tukson, his primary source of White Fang information was gone, as well, reduced to what he could scrounge up from his old plans and what they could force out of a few goons and lower officers.

"... Adam?" Ruby leaned over to wave her hand in Adam's face, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"I'm running low on new information," He lied. There was still one person he had enough information to possibly attack: his former lieutenant. However, Adam just wasn't sure if he could bring himself to make a betrayal of that caliber. Not yet. Not him. "We'll spend tonight searching for new ways in." He stood up and collected his notes before slipping them back in their hiding place beneath the mattress.

"We should get some rest, while we can..." Ruby quietly suggested, already knowing what Adam's answer would be.

"Feel free to. I'll be getting a head start." Adam replied over his shoulder as he opened the door.

Yang stood in his way, her arms crossed and eyes burning holes into his own. "We need to chat."

* * *

 **A/N: Next chapter's pretty short(honestly this one's on the below average side), so I'll just be posting that the day after this one. Normally, I'd have done a double feature, but I both noticed from view count that people tend to jump to the last chapter(which can be disorienting if you don't know you missed one) and have also experienced the confusion of doing so, myself, and suddenly not knowing what was going on.  
**

 **Bit of a warning, after that chapter I'm probably going to take another weeklong break, and then _probably_ update twice a week rather than every other day. It is by no means the end of the fic, I just find that I might have set myself up for failure trying to type out 2,000+ words a day. One day of not feeling like writing is enough to put me far behind.**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	24. V2: 5-1

**5-1**

* * *

"Well? What is it?" Adam questioned Yang the moment after they'd found a suitably empty classroom. The falling sun just reached its rear windows, bathing the two in golden light and heat that did nothing to melt the growing tension between the two.

"I know what you two have been doing." Yang cut right to the point.

Adam snorted and crossed his arms. "Interesting rumors you've been listening to."

"Don't play dumb, _Ace of Spades_ ," She retorted with a sigh, and drew out a few papers from her pocket. Expecting it to be some irrefutable proof of his and Ruby's vigilante actions, Adam instead felt a strong chill as he read over them: they were headlines and photos, article snippets and descriptions. The kidnapping and ransom of a young Schnee, the bombing of a human supremacist rally, a photo from a Schnee Dust Company executive before his execution and a familiar, red-headed teenager in a mask just in frame, another with him part of a protest.

Some were missing, some were wrong, but it was a laundry list of his crimes and actions in the White Fang, all neatly put together. Maybe not enough to link him alone, but combined with what they knew...

Adam may have left his weapon in his dorm, but his crimson aura still crackled to life around him, and the glare sent Yang's way could ignite Dust. Had she the _nerve_ to try and betray him like this? Now, of all times?

"What do you want?" Yang still had her gauntlets, but, he recalled their last fight. Even if she had improved, if he was fighting to kill, Adam knew he could still force out a victory. He just had to make the right move—

"What I want," Either unfazed or expecting Adam's wrath, Yang slowly stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder, staring right back into his watchful gaze. "Is for you to remember that we're a _team._ If you could trust us with knowing... _that..._ there better not be something you _can't_ trust us with," She spoke softly, _trustingly_. Just like she had _trust_ that he wouldn't do anything, after all. Adam glanced aside as his anger ebbed away and left faint guilt at jumping to such conclusions in its place.

Seeing that wrath fade, Yang teasingly flicked his chin. "Like running around as a superhero at night like a complete dork?"

The tension having quickly died down, Adam huffed and nudged Yang away. "I needed answers from the White Fang, so I improvised a disguise from what I could scrounge. They came up with the name, I just... went with it." He grumbled in a feeble attempt to explain himself. "But, I didn't stop then, and I won't stop now."

"I'm not telling you to stop, Adam, I'm just asking you to slow down." Yang hopped up onto the professor's desk and sat cross-legged, remaining surprisingly calm. It was a source of intrigue and worry, both, to see her like this rather than loud and feisty.

"My closest friend went missing a _week_ ago, the White Fang is working with _Torchwick_ , the entire criminal underground is about to burn itself down and I just found out that Blake didn't just go missing, I never knew where she really was in the first place," Adam hissed. "So excuse me if I don't believe I have such a _luxury._ "

"It's not a luxury, it's a necessity."

"The _necessity_ is finding out where my friend is and where she has _been,_ " He spat back. Yang slowly waved it off.

"And we will. But, first, why don't you let me tell you a story?" She motioned towards the other side of the desk, ignoring Adam's glare. Before he could respond, however, his Scroll rang. A quick look down told him it was Ruby. He would've answered, it, too, had he not looked back up.

Yang was simply staring at him with a curious little smile. She was _too_ calm, _too_ collected. She'd all but ignored what he'd really said, and her eyes... he couldn't read them. Adam could, however, tell that this was no accident: Yang was _trying_ to hide her emotions. It was like she'd practiced or prepared herself for this, and that left him curious: just how long had she known? Yang was making no attempts to keep him from leaving, either.

"Fine." He silenced the Scroll and took a seat across from her. He'd humor Yang. She smiled, thankful, before starting:

"Ruby and I grew up in Patch, an island just off the coast of Vale. Our parents were Huntsmen: our dad taught at Signal, and our mom would take on missions around the kingdom." She smiled wistfully, and her gaze slowly fell towards the ground. "Her name was Summer Rose."

Adam was glad for that fact: she didn't see his eyes widen, even briefly. Had he been wrong about Raven being her mother, all this time? He pushed the thought out of his mind when Yang looked back up to him.

"She was, like... _super_ mom: baker of cookies and slayer of giant monsters." There was a fleeting look of pride on her face, but Adam knew this ephemeral happiness wouldn't last. He'd heard stories like this from his recruits, before. He knew how it was going to end. "And then, one day, she went on a mission and never came back. It was tough. Ruby was really torn up, but, I think she was still too young to really—" Yang forced down a growing lump in her throat. "Get what was goin' on, ya know?"

The man across from her was unreadable: she couldn't tell if he was empathizing, listening or just pretending to so she'd get off his back. So she continued, anyway.

"And my dad just kinda... shut down. It wasn't long before I learned why." Lost in her memories, Yang's gaze drifted away yet again. "Summer wasn't the first love he'd lost. She was the second. The first..." She sighed.

"The first was _my_ mom." Adam arched an eyebrow. "He wouldn't tell me everything, but I learned that the two of them had been on a team with Summer and Qrow... and that she'd left me with him just after I was born. No one had seen her since." Now, she could see the emotion in Adam's eyes. The new trouble was figuring out what it was: shock at how awful it was, sympathy for her situation, or was it just pity?

What Yang didn't know was that it was _recognition_. That was why Raven had never mentioned having a child beforehand? She'd abandoned hers? For what possible reason? His throat felt dry: he wanted to say something, anything, but would knowing he trained under her mother but hadn't a clue where she was help Yang, or just make the pain worse?

His scroll began to buzz again, thankfully keeping him from saying something he shouldn't. Adam glanced down: Ruby, again. He silenced it immediately.

"Do you know why she left?"

Yang sighed and swung herself off of the desk. Fiddling with a piece of chalk, she looked up at the grand chalkboard at the front of the room. "There's that question: why... I didn't know the answer, but I was determined to find out. It was all I thought about: I would ask anyone I could what they knew about her. Then, one day, I found something." She began to draw.

"What I thought was a clue that could lead me to answers, or maybe even my mother. I waited for my dad to leave the house," Yang suddenly stopped and threw a glance back at him over her shoulder and emphasized: "Put Ruby in a wagon," She returned to her drawing. "And headed out. I must've walked for hours. I had cuts and bruises and was totally exhausted. But, I wasn't going to let anything stop me."

Adam had heard many sob stories from his recruits from the past. His own family life, even, was not a particularly happy tale. As such, even with his sympathy for Yang, a question rose in his mind: what was the point of this?

By now, what he once thought was something to keep her busy was beginning to turn into some sort of emblem. "When we finally got there, I could barely stand, but I didn't care: I had made it. And then, I saw... _them_. The Grimm. Those burning red eyes..." As the emblem reached completion, Yang became slower and slower. "And there we were, a toddler asleep in the back of a wagon and a stupid girl too exhausted to even cry for help. We might as well have been served on a silver platter, but..." Her hand stopped: she could feel Adam's stare, and all the growing impatience behind it.

Yeah. He didn't care. Yang forced back the anger trying to bubble up at that realization.

"Look, my stubbornness should've gotten us killed, that night. We lived because we were lucky."

"I'm sorry to hear that, but I'm no mere child, nor is this _just_ a search for answers!"

"But you _are_ dragging my sister into this!"

"And when the time comes to step beyond the boundaries of students, _I_ will let her go." His Scroll rang again. This time, he brought it to his ear, thumb hovering over the button to answer. "Like I told you, I'm no child. If you're going to tell me to give up, you're wasting your breath."

"And _I_ told _you_ : I'm not _telling_ you to stop!" Her anger broke through for nary a moment, golden locks flaring up just a little too much to be explained by the sunlight and the chalk she held being crushed into dust. "I haven't! I still want to know about my mother and what happened to her, but I'm not letting it control me! We'll find our answers, Adam," Her eyes hidden by her locks, Yang didn't notice the slowly-growing crimson glow behind her. It was like their words were gliding off one another. She wasn't even trying to listen! "But if we lose ourselves in the process, what good are—"

"Enough of this petty moralizing!" Adam roared, emerald eyes now fully crimson. " 'What good am I?' It doesn't matter! The very reason I came here might be dead! The faunus—my _people_ —are being treated like puppets by some criminal scum!" That glow remained, now, the very manifestation of his rage. "Don't you **understand?!** I can't and won't slow down because I'm the only one who stands a chance at saving Blake! At stopping Torchwick! At _everything!_ "

"No, **you** don't understand!" Yang whirled around to face Adam, her eyes mirroring his, and flames licking at her hair. "If Roman Torchwick were to walk in through that door right now, what would you do?"

"A foolish question: I'd kill him where he stood!"

"No, you would lose!" She shoved Adam back into the desk, and his buzzing Scroll clattered away onto the ground. Golden flames and crimson light grew brighter.

"I can stop this!" He lashed out, pushing Yang against the chalkboard and advancing, but even he could notice the strength he had to put into it. Just like he noticed how much less it took for Yang to sneak a punch into his stomach.

"You can't even stop me!" Were Adam a more docile, rational man, that show of force and what having to stoop so low meant might have brought an end to their argument, but, as the moment stood, there was no such man in front of Yang. Trapped in that room were two people who fed upon anger: one who kept it bottled up, the other who let it run free. One who was finally having it sink in just how much of a lie he had been living entire months upon, one who had to sit by and watch as even her sister refused to trust her.

In retrospect, it shouldn't have been a surprise to either when Adam turned his livid gaze down onto Yang, and the back of his hand slammed into her cheek.

 _ **"Prove it."**_

* * *

The underworld had opened up in a Beacon classroom. At least, no student could be faulted for thinking that if they peered in through the window. Flames and bright-red light danced across the darkened room, sending sprawling shadows rushing across the walls like predators leaping on pray. Roars and shouts filled the hellish room as a demon bull and fiery dragon clashed again and again.

"Was that all this was for?! Just another opportunity for you to teach a damned lesson!" Adam challenged as he stumbled back out of the way of a haymaker. Yang wasn't lying: he was getting weaker from the lack of sleep, he could feel it.

"Why! Won't! You! Listen!" Yang punctuated each word with a fiery jab at her glowing target. "You're so _selfish!_ All of you ever do is think of yourself!" A roundhouse kick forced Yang away from him.

"Rich! Coming from the one who interrupted my chance to save someone else's life!" Adam was running out of advantages, and fast. His mind was too tired to think: he'd been throwing kicks and punches, but that only fed into her Semblance. The flames were beginning to conquer his bloody light. With a last roar, he rushed Yang and knocked them both to the ground, leaving them both trying to get a tight enough grip to force the other to submit. In the end, however, Yang forced Adam beneath her and pinned him down.

"What would you do if someone walked in here and said they knew where Blake was, huh?!" Her opponent and friend struggled uselessly beneath Yang for a moment, then calmed down. The moment her grip loosened, however, Adam suddenly turned the tables, aura glowing with strain to hold someone as fierce as Yang to the ground.

"I would save her!" He bellowed and raised his fist. Yang didn't resist, only narrowing her bright-red eyes. "I would..."

Leave them. He'd have left all of RWAY without a second thought.

His hand uncurled and lowered and, as both sides of what Yang was worried about finally struck him, the crimson glow fell away.

"You'd leave us, right?" As Adam slowly forced himself back onto his feet, Yang rose up in front of him. The two simply stood there for a few seconds, panting and trying to catch their breath in the growing darkness. What were once bright flames around Yang faded to little more than embers. "Just like..." Her voice faded for a moment. "Just like I did. I found a clue, I got stupid, ran off and nearly got Ruby and myself killed. You don't need to be a child to get in over your head, Adam."

Even after all that, she could see Adam stubbornly holding onto his point, even as he struggled to come up with a retort. Yang took a step forward and suddenly pulled him into a tight hug. With all their anger finally vented out, all that was left were the worries that'd sparked it all in the first place.

"You don't need to stop, but, please, just... slow down and let us _help_ , Adam. We can do this together, as a _team._ We've all lost too much, and if you keep going off alone and something happens, you won't be the only one hurt." Slowly but surely, the tension left Adam. He'd surrendered... and let out a grunt as her hug grew a bit too tight. "But if anything happens to Ruby, you _will_ be." She whispered coldly. Yes, she was definitely Raven's daughter.

"Fine... you have defeated me. Verbally, not physically."

Yang playfully shoved him a step back and sauntered off towards the door. "As if! I'm calling that 5-3 for me!"

"5-2 at _worst_ , you can't win twice in a single fight!" Adam complained as he swept up his fallen Scroll, never noticing the massive number of missed messages from Ruby.

* * *

"... 5.5-2.5 and that's my final offer," Yang continued their joking argument had all the way back to their dorms.

"I might think about accepting if you agreed to actually duel me once in a while. We could even have our matches in private, so you don't have to worry about others seeing you getting _annihilated_ in the arena." With a smirk, Adam drew his Scroll to unlock the door. While, normally, it was more difficult to get him to engage in such pedantic conversation, it was a well-needed distraction from—

"Hello, Adam..." His Scroll fell from his hand.

Sitting next to Ruby on his bed, clad in the uniform of Haven Academy, was Blake Belladonna.

* * *

 **A/N: And here we gooooo.  
**

 **Alright, what I'll do is I'll take a week break. After that, RSoB will update every... let's say Monday and Friday.**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	25. V2: Reunion

**Reunion**

* * *

"N-now, wait, Adam, she explained it's all one big misunderstanding and I tried to call you a bunch because she's scared but she's really a nice person and she likes books and..." Ruby's rapid-fire attempt to preemptively defend Blake fell on deaf ears. Adam was as still as a statue in the doorway, pale and with wide eyes. He could see Blake's lips moving, but couldn't hear a thing. Adam barely recognized that Yang nudged her way past him.

This didn't make any sense. Utter happiness and a returning anger battled in his heart, leaving only dread until one could reign victorious. She was _never_ in Menagerie, she was in Mistral. His mind tried to come up with a reason why: perhaps she was trying to stop the White Fang's terrorist branch in Mistral, first, instead of building a peaceful organization? Then why was she in a Haven Academy uniform?

It was a cover, his mind replied, to make sure she had reason to be there beyond being a rogue. But then why would she _lie_ to him? Lie about her parents, lie about why she was there, who she talked to, every event, every tale, all just another lie. Why would she have not responded for over an entire semester unless she was planning to leave him entirely? It all came back to a single question, whether or not Blake had betrayed him at all.

Why was she _**here**_?

"Adam?" At some point in his daze, Blake had stepped closer, and it was then that it truly occurred to him that this was really happening. Blake was here. The amber eyes, the midnight-black hair, that silly bow... and that sharp, black uniform of Haven Academy. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and looked up to Yang and Ruby.

"Leave us."

"... Are you sure?" Ruby's eyes bounced from Blake, who'd turned her eyes down to the floor in shame or fear, to Adam, staring straight through her with a war of emotions raging in his mind. Yang, on the other hand, had no problem in snaking her way back out, suddenly glad to escape this increasingly awkward reunion.

 _"Now."_ Ruby and Blake both flinched at the intensity of his demand. As Adam stepped inside, Ruby quietly shuffled out. And then they were alone.

"What happened, Blake? Why weren't you in Menagerie?" He hissed. He couldn't let old memories trick him into letting Blake get away with this, not now.

"I... I-I was. Briefly. I'd taken the ship there, but when I got off, and I could see my parents' house right there I just... I don't know, I ran back." Blake sounded tired and weak. When Adam looked closer, he could see bags beneath her eyes: she hadn't slept in who knows how long. Perhaps tomorrow, he could let her—no! No! This needed to be answered _today!_

"So you went to Mistral? To _Haven?_ Why did you _lie_ and tell me you were in Menagerie, then? We could've adapted the plan around that: it isn't as if the more dangerous members of the White Fang are based there—"

Blake interrupted him, arms crossed defensively beneath her chest. "Adam, I didn't _want_ to fight the White Fang! I wanted to be done! I just... I just wanted to live a normal life without _this,_ " Blake motioned to her bow. "Hanging over me for all of it!" She admitted.

Adam clenched his fist and scowled enough to show teeth. So, it was true: from the very beginning, Blake hadn't meant a single word she'd said.

"You wanted to run from being a _faunus?_ You're a coward, just like you used to say you were!" The accusation tasted bitter on his tongue, so much unlike the smoothness and ease he expected the fury to flow with. The tears gathering in Blake's eyes as she continued to refuse to even look up at him did not escape his gaze. Try as he might, Adam could only stir the ashes of his anger vented out mere minutes ago. Perhaps, that was fortunate for both of them. Had he still been holding back as much fury as he had even an hour or two ago, Adam did not know just how hurtful he would be.

"Look at me," Adam commanded. Blake refused and stayed silent. **"Look at me!"** He bellowed and pulled Blake closer. Her eyes, full of fear, turned up, expecting to meet crimson eyes filled with unfathomable rage. To her shock and confusion, however, she found only a cold, solemn emerald, begging for answers.

"Blake. I just want to know one thing," It was now that Blake noticed just how... tired Adam's voice was. "Why did you lie to me? Why did you _abandon_ me here?"

"I... I'd meant what I said, on that train, Adam: I didn't want to see what you'd become. I hid and waited, hoping one day you'd just... vanish. Maybe you'd join the White Fang again, maybe you'd get arrested, but either way, I could just live my life as far away from the Fang as possible." Seeing nothing more than a slight narrowing of Adam's eyes, Blake continued, panic slowly beginning to enter her voice: "I-I hoped you wouldn't! God knows I hoped you would be alright, but, I couldn't just keep ignoring you day after day after day, so, one day, I'd finally forced myself to call."

He had been right the entire time. Claim as Blake might that she had hope, Adam knew there was no such thing before that day. He couldn't blame her, of course: he was close to becoming a monster, but, if Blake had so little hope for him then, could he even be sure that all of that was gone? Burnt out on anger already, all Adam felt was a growing feeling of bitterness.

"Three months later... and then I saw you, and your... your _human_ team! I didn't know what to do, I barely even expected to see you without the mask! So I just kept lying my way through the weeks, hoping one day maybe I could bring myself to tell you the truth, or tell you that I wanted to be alone." Blake had begun to tremble, her bow flattening as her ears tried to fold down. She'd expected anger and rage, demands and accusations but not just... nothing at all.

She started to ramble: being met with only silence pushed Blake's panic closer to hysteria. "T-then one day, someone came after me, they... t-they killed my entire team, and when I knew it was the White Fang, I just ran away _again_ _!_ I don't even know if any of them made it, and it was all my fault! Another team had gotten attacked and lost one of theirs, so they offered to have me join them with my team missing, but then they wanted to go to the Vytal Tournament and I knew it was at Beacon and you would be there but I just couldn't bring myself to call you again and—"

Adam hugged her, and Blake finally let her tears fall. After a few, silent moments, she shook her head.

"I don't get it... you should be angry, livid, shouting or..." Blake trailed off.

Adam let out a slow, deep sigh: now, that was a good point. Even burnt out like this, there were times when he could still muster up his rage, and they were incidents far less infuriating than learning your closest friend, your unofficial 'sister', and at one point, lover, had lied to him and sent him away in the hopes they'd never meet again. Yet, Adam had the answer:

"I knew, already." The first words he'd spoken since Blake had begun to explain herself at all. Adam remembered, now, that brief moment of recognition when Blake had landed on the other train cart. He'd known from then just what Blake wanted: freedom from the White Fang, and freedom from him. There were two paths for him, then: follow her, or let Blake go. The latter had passed his mind for an ephemeral moment, but, it was the former he chased after.

Even if it was in the back of his mind, scratching at him for months on end in the form of his doubt, Adam _knew_ she still wanted to leave. Sometimes, he still found himself wondering what would have happened if he'd simply let her go, in the first place.

"I think I just needed to hear it from you, myself." He was happy not only that he had these many months to think, but no anger to weigh him down, because it made it far easier to do what needed to be done: "So I could tell you that I don't care."

For both her health and his, it needed to be let go.

"You're safe. You're _here_. That's all that matters, right now." It was a lie, but a white one: finding out what happened in Mistral could come later. Adam smiled down at Blake. "Just try to warn me, next time, alright?" She stared at him, confused, then, with a short laugh borne from utter disbelief, finally hugged him back.

"I did miss you, though..."

"I missed you, too."

 _"Awwww..."_ The two were not even sure if they needed to be faunus to have heard the squeaky coo of the eavesdropper just behind the door. Blake's ears flattened and in an instant, she was back to her easily-aggravated, stoic self.

"And just like that, any enjoyment I got out of this is gone." She mumbled more to herself than to Adam. Agreeing wholeheartedly, Adam let Blake go, calmly walked to the door and swung it open, letting Ruby and Yang flop face-first into the room.

Yang was the first one to look up with a wide, goofy grin. "Aw, man, this isn't JNPR's dorm! Ha ha, silly us! Well, sorry for _dropping in_ on you like that, we'll just make our way out!" She and Ruby scrambled up to their feet and backed away from the door under Adam and Blake's silent, watchful glares. Adam suddenly got the feeling that he was forgetting something important.

"Maybe if you'd listened to _me_ , you two hooligans would not have found yourselves in that situation, in the first place!" Weiss chastised them as she stepped out from behind the wall with a smug smile. Her icy eyes flicked over to Blake with interest: it had, in the end, been the first time she'd ever seen this mysterious girl. There was always some twist of fate that stopped her from getting a clear image.

Blake, on the other hand, was staring at Weiss with her mouth slightly agape and eyes wide as saucers. Her bow twitched a little from the shock: Weiss _Schnee_ was here? The very heiress herself?

Not noticing or perhaps just being purposefully ignorant to Blake's confusion, Weiss smiled up to the girl. "So! You must be this 'Blake' I've heard about. Well, any friend of my partner's is a friend of mine!" She paused. "Within reason." Weiss crossed her arms and tried to make herself look as tall and confident as possible, fitting for the Schnee name. That, of course, was the problem. Blake stepped forward, silently watched her for a moment longer...

And unceremoniously slammed the door in her face.

"What is _she_ doing here?" Blake harshly whispered to Adam, her voice full of suspicion. She may not have been a terrorist like him any longer, but, Blake had left because of the violence the White Fang had chosen to use, not their reasons for doing so, and especially not because of their hatred for the family that had been at war with hers since the beginning.

"That would be the third member of my team I never got to speaking of: Weiss Schnee. My partner," Adam admitted.

"You've had a Schnee with you this entire time and just 'never got to' speaking of it?" She wasn't believing a single word of that.

"I assure you, the situation is completely different than what you think."

"That you've been partnered up with the pampered heiress to the most despicable, racist, self-centered corporation in all of Remnant? Have you lost your mind! Did you _forget_ Altebrucke?" Adam narrowed his eyes, but his retort was cut off by the door opening and Weiss stomping her way inside.

"I can _hear_ you two, you know!" Her arms crossed beneath her, Weiss glared up at Blake, leaving the two standing in a tense silence. Ruby and Yang leaned in from either side of the door, watching intently. "And whatever you may have heard, that's not _me._ "

"But you're still one of _them,_ "

"No, she's not. Not anymore." Adam reassuringly placed a hand on Blake's shoulder. Weiss glanced between Adam and Blake with more than a hint of apprehension.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Blake asked.

"It means I've spent more than enough time with her to know that she's nothing like Jacques. Do you think I could be so calm if she were?" Weiss let out a small sigh of relief; she had feared he would spill the secrets of her familial trouble. Blake looked over Weiss a last time, then crossed her arms beneath her chest and huffed.

"Maybe we should all just... sit down and chat a little? That's how we all started getting along!" Ruby piped up from the doorway, grinning.

"Uh, actually, we just sort of beat each other up or beat someone _else_ up," Yang commented an earned a sharp nudge to the side from her sister for her troubles. "I meeean, what'cha like to do?" The two hopped inside. Blake looked between the four and, realizing she really should have expected this to happen, sighed before answering:

"I... read."

"Pfft, lame! You play any games?" Yang leaned over on one side of Blake. Ruby was busy gushing over the odd weapon she carried on her back: a pistol-blade of some kind with a sharpened cleaver-like sheath? Was that a handle on the sheath, too? Oooh, it was for duel wielding!

"Hey! Reading as a hobby is dying out in this age: it's good that there are still some intellectuals, out there," Weiss entered the conversation, having gotten more than used to underlying hostility to try and chat casually with Blake. As Adam masked his sigh of relief that this hadn't turned out to be a complete disaster, he dropped down onto his bed and flicked his hat aside to run a hand through his hair. It was strange, watching the rest of his team chatting with—though, from how they had Blake almost surrounded, 'mobbing' was a more fitting term—Blake.

Something about the four together just felt... right.

* * *

"So, since she's safe, what're we gonna do about our little... situation?" Yang eventually asked from her bed. Ruby had managed to pester Blake enough to let her look—but not _touch—_ Gambol Shroud on the floor beside her.

"My new team said they know a few people who can keep the White Fang off of our trail here," Blake suggested from beside Adam.

Her former partner shook his head. "There's something beyond that. One of the most powerful figures in the underworld, Roman Torchwick, has been working with the White Fang. They've been draining the Dust of the city dry, but it doesn't even look like their underlings know that Torchwick is working with them."

"Torchwick..." Blake mulled over the name, then narrowed her eyes. "He's a human, that's impossible."

"That's what I thought, as well, and that must be exactly why no one but the higher-ups and those directly involved were told."

"How can the White Fang be involved with that _scum?_ They betrayed their values—" She _tried_ to ignore Weiss' scoff. "Just for some extra Dust and money?"

Adam simply shrugged. "I don't know. I don't understand what Lieutenant Almond is thinking, either: he should have slain Torchwick on sight."

"I believe we shouldn't bother." Weiss' suggestion brought all eyes on her. "We have an entire city's worth of police and Huntsmen who are handling this situation: even if they couldn't handle it, what makes you think we can?"

"They don't know the White Fang like we do!" Blake motioned to herself and Adam. "We're the only ones who can stop them."

"You're also students," Adam countered. " _All_ of you. Investigation of this level is not something that just any Huntsman can do, let alone Huntresses-in-training: they are men and women who are ready to kill _,_ and officers with power that can rival my own."

"Psh, we can handle that! We're going to be Huntresses saving the world soon enough, this is just a head start!" Ruby proudly proclaimed and bounced up to her feet.

"What do you mean, _all_ of us? I've fought alongside you for years!" Blake protested.

"Like a few thugs with masks are gonna be able to stop us—"

 **"Enough!"** And the room was quiet. Adam rose to his feet, carrying an aura of command. Authority laced his every word. "You are too young. All of you. If you were to go down this path, it would not be just a night or two of stopping grunts, or even a single attack on the scale of the docks. It would be far more dangerous, and I will not allow you—even you, Blake—to put yourselves in that much danger."

"Thank you! We are _not_ ready for this level of conflict. We're _teenagers_ ," Adam didn't bother correcting Weiss on that. "We cannot just run off willy-nilly trying to apprehend these ne'er-do-wells believing it will be the same as hunting Grimm. These are _real_ people who are _real_ threats."

"We may never _get_ to be ready! They aren't just going to wait until graduation to attack! If they're out there planning their next move and we don't do anything, we'll be caught by surprise, and then what?" Blake countered.

"We can't just sit and let people get hurt and robbed when we know we can stop them, too! What kind of hero does that?" Ruby stepped in once more on Blake's side.

"The _smart_ ones. The ones who slow down, wait and don't get themselves killed," Adam's retort was swift and sharp.

Yang chuckled. "Aww, you really did listen!"

Blake, however, snarled. "You're the one who agreed to help me take down the White Fang in the first place! How can you turn around and try to do this alone, now?"

"Because _you_ didn't want to do so in the first place. _You_ want to be normal, and _I_ am going to make sure you can be."

"Okay, okay, okay! New idea! We'll put it to a vote!" With a quick hop, Ruby jumped atop a desk and stood tall above the rest of the team. "All those in favor of being the youngest Huntresses and Huntsman to singlehandedly take down a corrupt organization conspiring against the Kingdom of Vale, say 'aye'!" She pointed to herself. "Aye!" Then to Blake.

"If being normal means I have to watch my brothers and sisters sink into corruption, then I'll gladly cast it aside." Two out of five, and with Yang, it'd be an easy victory for them!

"... I... kinda agree with Adam and Weiss..." Yang nervously ran her hand through hair and looked up at Ruby with guilty eyes.

"What? Come on, sis, you were saying yes a second ago!"

"But... maybe they've got a point! If anyone would know how dangerous the White Fang are, it's _probably_ going to be their former leader. You've never even _fought_ another human outside of a couple goons, Rubes."

"W-well, yeah, but... this is what we're training to be Huntresses for!"

"But what if something happens to you? Or me? Or any of us! If you know the White Fang, maybe it's better to just slip that information to the cops and let them handle it! Win-win, see?" Yang flashed a nervous smile. "White Fang gets people on their tails—pun intended—and we're safe and sound! Look, I don't... I don't want to risk losing any of you." Blake, formerly so gung-ho, suddenly became quiet. She was getting carried away, and fast, back to the old fervor that fueled her in the White Fang itself... but, back then, she didn't have that many friends.

"We'll be fine, Yang, really! Right, Blake?" Blake didn't respond. "... Blake?"

"... No... Yang's right." Her eyes stayed on the ground. "I lost my team because the White Fang just wanted to tie up loose ends. If you do this, you'll all be in danger. Sorry."

"I'm not saying that you should stop," Adam clarified. Yang hid her smile behind her blonde locks. "Nor am I saying to forget this ever happened. But if you rush in too deep, you'll get hurt. If you wish to find information, save Dust and beat up grunts, I will not stop you from doing so, but you're not ready to take on the core of the Vale branch. They would want nothing more than to see you all dead. Taking down the source is my responsibility alone." The silence that fell over the room now was not tense, simply solemn. Reality had set in. Even Ruby just sighed and plopped down onto the desk.

"... Yeah, I guess so..." She mumbled.

Adam almost felt guilty for murdering the mood. "Blake, do you still remember how to play Remnant?" Blake perked up. The two of them were fond of the game when they were younger, but, as time went on, they simply had neither the time nor enough interested people—even friends—to continue playing.

"Oh, oops! I think I left it in the library, I'll be right back!" Ruby zoomed out of the door, and almost instantly they heard her yelp as she slammed into someone else.

 _"Are you new?"_ Adam could faintly hear Ruby ask. Admittedly curious, he stood up and tried to listen closer, his faunus hearing picking up the voices even over the idle conversation between Blake and Yang.

 _"Visiting from Haven, actually."_ A smooth, almost haunting voice of a woman struck his ears. Adam paused. That voice sounded familiar, and not in a good way. Not at all. Memories were stirred up from before even Beacon.

 _"Ooooh, you must be here for the festival! Oh, but exchange students have their own dormitory!"_

 _"We must've gotten turned around."_ Something scratched at the back of his mind as a callous, casual man replied. That voice. He'd heard it before, hadn't he? Something told Adam to hurry, and he strode towards the door.

 _"We were looking for our partner, actually. Have you seen her?"_ His eyes widened. Another girl's voice, but there was no mistaking her: she was the one who he'd overheard on Blake's Scroll. Adam stepped out into the hall, and his blood froze in his veins.

"Uuuh... maybe! What's her name?" Three Haven students. The gray-haired boy, tallest of the three, with an apathetic, if not faintly smug look permanently etched onto his face and a stance that spoke he was ready to attack at a moment's notice no matter how much he tried to hide it. The darker woman with short, minty-green hair, young and innocent looking even with those bright-red eyes, like she never belonged in the group at all. He recognized them, now.

Just like he recognized _**her.**_ Her coal-black hair was longer than he remembered, but everything about her from her amber, sharp eyes to that eternal, confident smirk had remained the same. Amber eyes met emerald, and for a brief moment, he was certain that infernal smirk actually _grew._

"Blake Belladonna."

 _Cinder Fall._

* * *

 **A/N: Well, this one was a doozy to write, namely trying to get the pacing right on an important conversation so that it isn't literally the entire chapter.  
**

 **Comment and criticism welcome.**


	26. V2: Change of Heart, Change of Plans

**Change Of Heart, Change of Plans  
**

* * *

"Oh! Blake! Yep, she was actually with us, sorry! I didn't know she hadn't told her team." Ruby rattled on, completely oblivious to the hateful gaze of the man behind her or the tension that should have been burning away the very oxygen in the air. Adam clenched his hand into a fist tight enough for his fingers to dig into his palm even through his gloves. _They_ were here. Cinder and her two cronies. They were here and they had somehow pulled Blake into their plans.

"It's fine, don't worry. Though, I never knew her brother was attending Beacon!" The minty one said with a smile all too sweet.

"Why don't you show my teammates around: it has been _ages_ since Adam and I last saw each other..." Cinder calmly strolled past Ruby, amber eyes all but glowing as she stopped in front of him and ignored the glare trying to set her ablaze. Ruby followed Cinder with her eyes and paused, subtly cocking her head to one side.

"Are you okay, Adam? You look a little... uh, upset." She asked with a hint of worry in her voice. His irises were crimson, and his hair was so vivid it was on the brink of emitting a light of its own. One deep breath, however, and the red drained from Adam's eyes, leaving them emerald and restrained in their hate.

"I'm fine. Take Blake with you, she needs to be shown around, as well. Yang should know some of the more casual locations in Beacon, so take her. Even Weiss, if you wish." Adam urged without emotion, putting all of his resistance into avoiding not just the urge to strike the witch in front of him down right then and there, but even just showing his anger. He did not know why Cinder was here, just yet, but he was beginning to get theories, and none of them left it a good idea to give Cinder even a sense that RWAY knew what she was planning. It was all Adam could do to stack the odds even that much: four versus two would give them a good chance of victory.

"Come along, Adam, we have so much to catch up on..." Cinder dragged her fingers possessively across his shoulder as she passed him, taking great pleasure in how his eyes flickered red for just a moment before he followed behind her. Ruby was left watching after the two with suspicion rising in her eyes, but was snapped out of it by the gray one tapping her shoulder.

"So, are we leaving, or what? Name's Mercury, by the way."

"Emerald."

"I'm Ruby! Let me just grab my team, first! Oh, uh, quick question: 'you like the arcade?" Ruby chirped with a sunny grin, her worries swept into the back of her mind, for now.

"And just like that, I already like you more than the rest of my team," Mercury joked.

* * *

"You must be rather sure of yourself, meeting with me alone, like this," Adam hissed as they arrived in one of the many spare rooms Beacon perpetually had available. Cinder made a show of sitting back on one of the desks and slowly folding one leg over the other.

"Oh, Adam, there's no need for this hostility—"

"There is when you are holding Blake hostage," He interrupted her with a growl. Already, his eyes had burned away their emerald to a deadly crimson just upon seeing Cinder dare to show her face.

Her confident, sly smirk did not so much as twitch. "I brought her here so that you had no reason to worry: she'll be safe with us, no matter _what_ happens." Cinder's purr made it difficult to tell if she was being genuine or threatening him, and Adam did not like that one bit.

"Enough beating around the bush, what do you want?"

"Aah, still cutting right to the point, the same as ever." Cinder crept closer to Adam, eye glowing with power and intrigue. "What I want is to give you another chance."

"For your _human_ cause."

She only tutted and shook her head. "It's _so_ much more than that, Adam. I had hoped that you would join me in the first phase of our plan, but you would be just as welcome in the second," Cinder placed a hand on his shoulder, but Adam refused to give her any satisfaction in seeing his reaction, this time. "We'll be lighting the fires of revolution and tearing down all the structures keeping you down, brick by brick. You could be right there beside us."

"What you and I want are two entirely different things, Cinder. Especially now. There is no chance of you shaking me from my path."

" _Adam,_ " She almost sounded genuinely offended. "Do you really believe I wouldn't make sure your team would be safe? I would treat them just as well as I'd treat you..." Cinder brought the tips of her fingers to Adam's chin, and his eyes flashed brighter with restrained anger. Though he'd refused her scheming in the past, there were no doubts in Adam's mind that she was intelligent. To walk into the enemy's center of power and openly mock the one you did not even dare threaten before meant that she knew something he did not. The stakes were far too high for bluffing.

"Leave them out of this."

"I'm afraid that's impossible, and you know it. The heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, and the daughter of Raven Branwen?" He tensed, and Cinder smiled more. "There are only two places that they can be, Adam: _with_ us, or _against_ us, and I don't need to spell out just what will happen if they choose incorrectly. I won't lie to you, Adam: it will be a dangerous path, but with us, they can survive."

Their eyes bored holes into one another, Adam's crimson fierce and trying to kill her with only sight, Cinder's amber trying to drown his very willpower. Finally, crimson faded back to emerald and, with a sickly-sweet smile, Cinder stepped back from him.

"You are a wise woman, Cinder... at least, that is what I thought. Alas, it seems I'm **almost** as foolish as you are." Her smirk slipped as Adam advanced. "You come here before me yet again, and request I leave _my_ life here, threaten _my_ friends, take _my_ dear hostage, and then ask me to make sacrifices for your worthless cause? Your cause is not even human. It is that of _**vermin.**_ " His aura flared and his hair began to glow a bright, bloody red. While Adam only stood a couple inches taller than Cinder, he made every bit of it count as he towered over her.

"Do not say things you will regret, Adam. We care far more for the faunus than Ozpin _ever_ will," Cinder warned him. The air wavered and warped from the pressure of aura and growing temperature alike.

"Leave this place and _never_ return," With a vicious, jeering smirk that bared his teeth, Adam brought his hand just under Cinder's chin, ignoring the blistering heat that leaped across his hand in response. "I would hate to have to cut that pretty head of yours off, myself. I was having _such_ a nice run, here." Turning Cinder's little act back onto her finally earned him a scowl. The glow of her eye had turned into a flame of its own, warning him from making any other movements. She snatched his wrist and let her flames rise. Adam pursed his lips to avoid letting her see his gritted teeth.

"Don't make the mistake of thinking you're needed just because you are stronger than that fool, Almond." His aura flared again, and hers responded in kind. Cinder was the missing link: she must have returned and forced Lieutenant Almond into her schemes, it was the only way that he would ever agree. If the White Fang and the Torches were working together... was Cinder in control of them both?

"This is a kindness and nothing more," Cinder tossed his hand aside. "It would be best if you remembered that." She glared up at him, waiting for him to leave. The room was little more than a silhouette, now, caught between the deadly light of Adam and the aura of his foe.

"The only kindness here is that I do not execute you myself. No, I'd rather see what Ozpin would have in store for scum like you..."

"He is the _scum_ in this kingdom, Adam," She took a deep breath and crossed her arms. By the time she'd exhaled, Cinder had regathered herself completely. "And it is so disappointing to see that you've become his slave."

Adam scoffed. "I am no one's slave."

"Then I wonder why, when given the chance to tear Vale down, give your people freedom and even save your team, you would refuse..." Cinder left it at that, and sauntered past Adam to the exit. "There's no shame in admitting that you were tricked. He can be a _very_ persuasive man... but remember, Adam, the offer's still open."

"I won't even mind if you told your team," Cinder continued, the door half-open already. "But before you go running back to your master, just remember who has the 'hostage'. I'd suggest not telling her, either." A dark chuckle slipped from Cinder as she stepped into the hall and slammed the door behind her. Adam was left to wallow in his fury as just another shadow in a haze of red. With a roar of frustration, he spun and slammed his foot into the desk, the crunch of breaking wood quickly lost in the rush and roar of it decaying into wilting petals.

He'd lost. There was no way out. She had Blake, she had a way into Beacon, and she had not just his entire organization, but a _second_ at her disposal. Worse, he still hadn't the smallest clue of what she was actually planning. All he had learned was that who the true head was: Cinder. _**Cinder.**_

Adam would make sure that Cinder perished at his hands, even if it killed him.

* * *

He didn't care that he slammed the door to their dorm. The only thing Adam cared about right now was making sure that his team was still safe and hunting down his former lieutenant as quickly as possible, consequences be damned. He whipped out his Scroll and tore Wilt off of his bed, already prepared to call Ilia for further orders when someone cleared their throat behind him.

"So, who was she?" Spinning on his heels, Adam had Wilt half-drawn before he'd realized just who it was. Weiss had her arms crossed, eyes locked onto his without so much as flinching at his near-assault. Standing just next to the door, Adam hadn't even seen her in his focused rage.

"... No one. Just a friend from my time in the _White Fang_." He couldn't afford to get anyone else involved before he had everything prepared, so, just as he wielded Blake's parents as a weapon to have her back off of subjects he didn't wish to speak of, Adam spat out the name of the White Fang, knowing it would push Weiss away.

Her eyes hardened and her lips pursed. "Don't lie to me, Adam. I heard how you were speaking before you two left. _Who is she?_ "

"I said no one—"

"We fought far too much when we started here for me _not_ to know the tone of voice you have when you are angry!" Weiss stomped towards him, unfazed by the practically corporeal field of stress and bottled-up rage surrounding Adam. "And I heard you in those halls: you were positively _livid!_ So, Adam Belladonna, I shall ask you again: _who_ _is Cinder Fall!"_ She demanded to know, jabbing a finger at his chest and glaring at him from eye-level. Adam blinked. Eye-level?

As his gaze slowly fell from hers to the chair Weiss was standing on to match him in height, just a little of that tension managed to escape him. A broken chuckle escaped Adam as he collapsed onto his bed. To lose his anger was the last thing he needed.

"Cinder Fall... is the one holding Blake hostage." The words left his mouth tasting of ashes. All that was left now was the gravity of the situation, and with it, the suffocating loss. There was no way to hide the finality of his words and, through that, no way to prevent his team from inquiring further.

"Are Ruby and Yang still with them?" He turned his head to find Weiss staring at him in shock, mouth slightly agape and barely-hidden fear lurking behind her gaze. To have someone taken hostage was not an alien experience for a Schnee: Weiss knew just how Adam must be feeling. She searched her mind for answers, questions, memories of what Winter would say to assuage her worries, only realizing a question had been asked when Adam asked it again.

"O-oh, they left for ice cream after showing _her_ teammates around, I'll retrieve them immediately!"

"Good. I'll explain the situation when we're all here."

* * *

"... Oh..." It was all Weiss could even think of after Adam explained the situation to her. By now, she'd slumped down next to him, leaving the two of them to stare off into nothing. Ruby watched silently with a hand over her mouth, sitting next to Yang on the opposite side. The setting Sun broke through their curtains, leaving them in shadow, yet filling the center of the room with light.

"So we're gonna go beat them down, right? They can't just get away with that!" Yang, however, was not so quiet on the issue, jumping right up to her feet into the light and slamming her fists together.

"As far as we're concerned, they already have. We can't afford to get Ozpin involved," Adam countered.

"We just won't tell him, then! We can stop this, ourselves!" Ruby hopped up next to Yang with determination burning in her silver eyes.

"Ruby, she's at the _head_ of all of this: both the Torches _and_ the White Fang's leaders are bowing to her for one reason or another, and the White Fang _alone_ is too dangerous for all of you. The only reason I have told you this much is just in case Cinder tries to get too close."

"And you want to take them down all by yourself, right?" Yang prodded at Adam; he knew full well that victory against odds like this would be unlikely, to say the least. Even so, he snorted and met Yang's gaze.

"I will find a way. I've fought against the odds my entire life, and this is no different. It's bad enough that Blake is her hostage, I refuse to have you three put at even greater risk than before. We have had this conversation: the situation changes nothing."

"It changes everything! Surely, you do not expect us to stand by and let this happen!" Weiss protested, turning to stand with her team.

"Were you not the one refusing to fight Torchwick and the White Fang, in the first place?"

"That was before it was personal, Adam! Students should not be jumping into the business of police and proper authorities, but as your friends and teammates it is our _responsibility_ to help one another in their time of need!"

"Sounds like an 'aye' to me!" Ruby joined in. "No more excuses, Mister! We're in this whether you like it or not!"

"Besides, it sounds like even if we weren't involved she'd try to pick a fight with us! I don't know about you, but even if she has us beat, I'd rather go down swinging!" Yang declared. Adam stared at the three from his bed in the shadows: each of them _determined_ to not leave a friend of theirs behind, or be left behind themselves, for that matter. This was an argument they'd had before, and every time, he'd ended up on the losing end of it: he had a team, now, and it was their job to help one another no matter what it was. Had Yang stormed in saying someone had kidnapped Ruby, he wouldn't have let Ozpin himself stop him from fighting alongside her. Even—an errant thought fluttered through his mind—if the White Fang had targeted one of the few Schnees left.

"So, then, you wish to fight Cinder, the White Fang and Torchwick alike from the lowest of goons to the most vicious of officers, so matter how dangerous they may be?" Adam spoke softly, and slowly pushed himself to his feet.

"Uh-huh!" Yang and Ruby agreed at once. Weiss was quieter, only nodding. These were both his allies and friends. Going alone wouldn't just put himself at risk, now, but Blake and them as well.

He stepped forward into the light, the embers of rebellion in his emerald eyes rising to a fire. "You want to halt an entire conspiracy burning away at the very supports of the entire Kingdom of Vale and go from reading history to being a _part_ of it?"

"Yeah!" All three called, now, determined. He wouldn't be alone in this. Cinder would fall, and it would be at their hands.

"To save Blake from dark forces that not even she knows of, and rise up through the flames as the strongest students Beacon has ever known?"

"YEAH!" It was a smaller chorus than Adam was used to, but he could manage.

"Again!"

 **"YEAH!"** He hadn't exactly intended to turn it into a speech, but, a little theatrics never hurt. With a proud smirk, he crossed his arms.

"Good!" A soft chuckle escaped Adam before he let himself grow serious. "Do you all know what this will entail?" He was met with a trio of nods and three sets of resolute eyes. Yes, they were certainly determined, but, Adam still stuck to his guns: they would not be ready to fight the core of the criminal underworld, let alone Cinder, in their current condition. To allow them to do so would be irresponsible.

"So be it, then. Tonight, we rest, but tomorrow at nightfall, we meet in weapons training room 301B. Ruby, bring as many plans and exercises as you can." Adam took a deep breath and hardened his gaze. This was the crossing of the Rubicon. There was no turning back, now: they were and would be his team likely not just for four years but for decades.

"You may not be ready to face the upper echelons yet, but I will _make_ you ready."

* * *

The next night, the three girls of RWAY entered 301B to find Adam already waiting for them, sitting at it's far end. Training dummies were pushed to the edges of the rooms and tables were set aside as barriers, leaving only a vast, empty space in the center. Adam looked like he was asleep: his legs were crossed, eyes closed, head tilted down, and whereas they were so used to him perpetually carrying an aura of tension around him, he seemed... at peace.

"Ah, good, you're early," Adam spoke without moving an inch.

Yang stifled a chuckle as the three strode towards the center. "Are you going to keep being this dramatic through all of our 'new' training?" Adam masked his sigh as a deep breath and opened his eyes. How Raven's child somehow managed to end up her polar opposite, he'd never know.

Well, he could hazard a guess, but that wouldn't explain everything.

"... I suppose not, but, do not expect me to be exactly friendly during my lessons. Make no mistake, these lessons are not how to slay Grimm, but on how to slay man. It is a different fight, with different rules and boundaries, and very few, if any, will be cleaner than those followed during the war against Grimm."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it, Adam." Yang casually waved off Adam's warnings and stood over him. With a more obvious sigh, he finally stood up and grabbed his blade.

Ruby looked around the room and couldn't help but notice all their dummies being put aside. "Sooo, how're we going to do our team attacks without any targets?"

"We'll be doing my lesson first, today. A show of what will be needed to continue." Adam slowly unsheathed his blade and waved Yang back with a lazy sweep of it. He spun it once in his hand, then pointed it to the three. "What are the four uses of aura?"

Ruby rose to the challenge. "Oh! Um, let's see... defend yourself from lethal wounds, manifest your Semblance, enhance yourself and your weapon, um..." She trailed off as Adam looked at her expectantly.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Dust, you dolt! Processed Dust requires an awakened aura to be wielded at all in its pure form, whereas raw Dust's true potential can only be accessed safely by active aura use." She recited. Adam looked between the three and motioned towards them with Wilt before sheathing his blade.

"What about the fifth?" The three glanced to one another with various looks of confusion.

"I'd heard some rumors about some Huntsmen being able to project their aura?" Ruby offered.

"Correct. An advanced tactic that is kept out of the public eye, and for good reason: the fifth art, the projection of one's aura is considered to be highly dangerous for a student or anyone with less than a masterful use of their aura: in a combat situation, you could easily cast aside half of it with a single mistake. Outside of combat, anything short of absolute dedication can still leave you not just exhausted, but _unable_ to use aura for long periods of time. A death wish, were you in the field." He turned and, with a flicker of red, slashed at the air and had sheathed his blade once more in the blink of an eye. One of the training dummies collapsed, cut in half.

"The consequences of attempting to use it without at least three months' worth of training can be catastrophic. We will be doing so in three weeks," Adam bluntly informed them. Whereas Yang looked more curious than anything and Ruby was bouncing up and down at the opportunity to learn a new way of fighting, Weiss looked like she'd swallowed a brick of ice.

"Why can't we just shoot them? I mean, that's why we got bullets, right?" Yang questioned.

"For the same reason we need such heavy weaponry in the first place: anti-material rifles, heavy Dust shotgun shells, and Dust-based spells are required because maintaining the same aura empowerment on a single bullet, let alone multiple ones, across long distances as you do behind a swing is almost impossible. At close ranges, I'm sure you will agree to how useful this tool is."

"Are we just going to ignore the 'catastrophic consequences' of trying to achieve this level in a scant quarter of the time we should be learning for?" Weiss cried out.

"I've always wanted to punch a guy in the face from across the room, _but,_ I'm gonna have to agree with Weiss: how are you going to teach us all of that in such a short time, anyway?"

"The same way I was taught," A slim, devious smirk slipped across Adam's visage. "Necessity."

Upon seeing Yang actually thinking over this and Ruby drawing out Crescent Rose, unable to wait already, Weiss once again tried to be the voice of reason: "I am perfectly fine with risking my life to stop Torchwick and the White Fang, but I certainly am not okay with doing so before we even step out of the school's boundaries!"

"If you wish to stand a chance against the upper echelons of even the Torches, you will need these techniques. If Cinder is here already, then that means time is short. I know that as a team, we must fight as one, but, I won't let you continue without being as prepared as possible. You _could_ always return to the life of a student like I wanted, of course, but—"

"Fine, fine! I better not get a scratch from this..." Weiss grumbled under her breath.

"There will be no promises on that matter, because there is a sixth use for aura. One not just forbidden for students, but for all Huntsmen and Huntresses." Adam once more drew his blade, yet, this time, it glimmered with the same crimson as his aura and gathered around its edge with an unnerving resemblance to blood. "Yang, is your aura active?"

"Oh! Uh, didn't know we'd be jumping into it this fast, yeah, I can start it up." Gold flickered around Yang as she bound close and dropped into a fighting stance. Adam's lips twitched upwards into a smile.

"Good. It will be the last time I will ask. Allow me to demonstrate—" He was already on Yang, swinging his blade out in a wide arc right for her. She raised her arms up to deflect it with her aura.

Only to let out a startled grunt when, with a brief flash of yellow, Adam's blade slipped clean through her aura and left a slight gash on her arm, just deep enough to begin trickling blood.

"O-okay, time out, what was that?!" Yang let out a little hiss as she checked her arm over: that wasn't just pain, that was an actual wound, even if it was stitching itself back together, already. She tentatively touched around it just to make sure she wasn't dreaming: her aura _was_ up, wasn't it?

"The sixth use of aura: focusing your willpower to a point where it bypasses your opponent's very soul: aura penetration."

Weiss frowned disdainfully at the thought. "The 'art' of a murderer."

* * *

 **A/N:** **Let me tell you, it was extraordinarily hard not to make Adam come off as too... OC-y in this chapter. Knowledge of the plot, powers clearly beyond the main crew, loner attitude, etc. all sort of came to a head, here, and it made for a difficult chapter to write. Worry not, the rest of RWBY will still remain important, but, the fic is decidedly(at least during V1-3) over Adam's shoulder more than anyone else: even if he isn't the protagonist of the plot, he _is_ the protagonist of this particular story, since him being here is causing the changes. This isn't exactly helped by the end of V1 and beginning of V2 being very Blake-centered.  
**

 **The good news is that Adam probably won't be casting such a huge shadow from here on in, since Blake's lead role in V2 begins to die down, RWAY grows more steadily in power and focus begins changing to Ruby as a leader yet again.**

 **That being said, comment and criticism are especially welcome for this chapter.**


	27. V2: A War Declared

**A War Declared**

"Aura penetration, huh?" Yang idly wiped the blood from her arm after her aura finally finished healing the surprise cut across it. "Shouldn't you take me to dinner, first?" She nudged Adam's side with a wide grin. He only rolled his eyes in response.

"This is serious, Yang! This has been outlawed for over a century! Where did you even learn this, Adam?" Weiss demanded an answer.

"I don't get it, what's the big deal?" Ruby inquired before Adam could give one.

"How many _Grimm_ have aura?" The heiress shot back. Ruby's eyes briefly widened in surprise as it clicked in her mind.

It was now that Adam decided it would be best if he reentered the conversation. "You are correct: it is an entirely illegal art, which is exactly why we won't be speaking of it outside this room, or using it against anyone other than Cinder's forces. Its only purpose is to disable and kill, and even before the Great War, its ability to cause unspeakable casualties was well-documented." Adam made no efforts to sugarcoat the truth: it would be something they would need to recognize if they wanted to fight against humans in the first place. He slowly sheathed his blade, and continued when only an uneasy silence replied back from the three.

"It is not a perfect art: to think you can force someone's soul into total submission beneath your own is folly. Expect to inflict only bruises. Gashes. Cuts. Only at its strongest can you push past another's aura enough to inflict grave injury in one blow... but make no mistake. This is dangerous. This is brutal. This is 'wrong'. But, it is something that will save your life."

"And just how will a tool of murder allow us to do that?" Weiss was simply full of questions and, for once, Adam was glad for it.

"It is just as much a tool of murder as the very blades in your hands! Do you really believe that a Huntress battles only the Grimm?" That did not mean, however, that he wouldn't strike back. "Even without the White Fang, you would have found yourself against your own kind, and try as you might, those blades and bullets of yours would not stay free of blood for long." It was a sad fact, but, sooner they got past this, the sooner they could instead focus on striking down Cinder. By now, the air had grown tense: Ruby's eyes stared not at the ground but simply through it, her mind occupied with whether or not this as wrong, Yang's energy had slowly become suspicion, and Weiss... in a strange way, Weiss was the only one listening.

"Adam, I don't mind learning from you, but I came here to learn how to defend myself, not how to _kill_ others. Just... text me when it's Ruby's turn." And, unfortunately, that made her the first to leave. Now, there were three. Ruby looked back at Weiss leaving, and turned to look at Adam, clearly trying to form words of protest. Having one of them outright leave left even Yang looking uncomfortable. Adam sighed and closed his eyes: they were still young. Determined, yes, but in no way as fanatical as White Fang members joining at their age.

His grip on his blade tightened. They _were_ innocent: they'd come here to become heroes and legends, not soldiers and murderers. He was training defenders, not killers, and only as Adam looked upon these two teenagers did this finally take hold in his mind. If he treated them like the White Fang, he would _get_ the White Fang. He would corrupt them, even if he believed it necessary to survive and, so, with great reluctance, Adam let another piece of his former self go.

"Not all of it is about assault. It's about _willpower._ Even without turning it into killing instinct, just having the will to win can deflect those who use it for less than heroic purposes. You will only need to know that much; I won't make you into killers, I promise," He said with a slim smile.

All the strength in the world would be pointless if they were left hollow at its end. If push came to shove, he would rather do the killing himself and tarnish his hands further than to let even a speck of blood mar their own.

* * *

A glimmering, ivory spire standing taller than even Atlesian skyscrapers, the central tower of the Cross Continental Transmit System stood tall above all other buildings in Beacon. Connecting all of Remnant together for decades, the communications within the tower were the most affordable and quickest in the world, so long as you were willing to make the walk... and as long as the tower wasn't down for routine maintenance. It was Atlas' gift to the world, both to bring it together during some of its darkest hours, and to also assure the kingdoms that it was on their side after taking the crown from Mantle. Of course, some suggest an ulterior motive: Atlas kept its position by forcing the four kingdoms to work as one. After all, if one CCT tower goes down, they all do.

And all of this rich architecture, technology, history and rumors did not faze Weiss in the least. Why should it? All it did was remind her of the Atlas CCT scarcely a stone's throw from the Schnee manor, enticing her with an outside world she may never get to see. As heiress, she was forced to learn everything about it, from her company's predecessors working on it to the exact amounts of Dust necessary to run the nodes. It was a tired, ancient subject.

But, it was one Weiss knew well. She had no intentions of simply going back off to their dorm and pouting until Adam's murderous lessons were over: Weiss refused to give them—especially Adam himself—any ammunition to call her petty. So, while they were busy, Weiss decided that now would be a wonderful time to get some information on just where these Dust robberies were taking place from her company, and how much they were taking. From that, she might be able to find out where, if at all, the next ones would be taking place. If she was lucky, she'd be able to figure out their objective from it!

Yet, as she calmly strolled through the massive lobby and into the elevator, Weiss found herself wondering if this was the best decision to take. There was no danger involved, yet, she had not dealt with her father or the SDC in weeks. This could have been solved by simply requesting the transfer from a terminal in the library, but, the CCT could transfer data at exponentially faster rates. Less time for her father to notice.

 _"Hello, welcome to the CCT. How may I help you?"_ Inquired a robotized, female voice just natural enough to pass as human without thought.

"I'd like to go to the communications room, please." Weiss tried to keep her voice and smile as pleasant as possible. Winter always suggested to simply fake happiness, even when she felt down: she'd trick herself into forgetting those negative thoughts eventually.

 _"Absolutely, could you place your scroll on the terminal to verify your identity?"_ She obliged, and waited for the artificial assistant to respond. Weiss tried to follow Winter's advice as much as she could, but, it just never truly worked for her. All she could do was craft a mask.

 _"Thank you, Miss Schnee!"_ Especially when she was reminded so often of the very problem that loomed over her. Weiss' smile broke back down into a solemn frown, and all her attempts to force that calm happiness back onto herself resulted in a crumbling mask that would barely even fool Ruby. By the time she'd taken a seat at one of the many terminals on the transmit tower's upper levels, at least, Weiss had at least pasted that mask back into usability. It was better than nothing.

In front of the spinning snowflake logo of the SDC, a secretary's face appeared on-screen with a plain smile all too close to Weiss' own. "Thank you for calling the Atlas—" It lasted for barely a moment before who was calling registered to her. Her eyes widened and her smile became wide and brighter, yet no more genuine. "Oh, Miss Schnee! Good afternoon! Would you like me to patch you through to your father? I think your sister, Winter, is here, as well."

"No, thank you," Weiss dismissed the thought without further explanation. "I was actually hoping you could find some files for me. I've compiled a short list." She hooked her Scroll into the terminal, wasting no time. Short and quick. The sooner she was out of here, the better.

"... I see." The young secretary arched an eyebrow, curious. "If I may ask, what is this for?"

"School project," Weiss lied through her teeth with a shrug.

The woman's smile faded. "There are some sensitive documents on this list, ma'am."

"Then I will be sure to treat them with care." She put a little force behind her facetious comment. Just enough to get the point across of who this secretary was talking to. It succeeded: while nervous, the secretary glanced down and clicked away at something.

"Very well, I... hm, this is odd. It says that you do not have the proper clearance."

Weiss barely hid her sharp gasp. "I-Is that right? Well, I recommend you look into that. As heiress of the company, it wouldn't do to be unable to study my own future workplace."

The secretary gave a nervous smile and reached for a Scroll. "O-of course, ma'am. One moment, please." The screen became a spinning symbol of Atlas. Weiss glanced about nervously: she could do without money, but, being cut off completely from the company? What was her father thinking?

Such a question, at least, would be easily answered soon, for it was Jacques Schnee who appeared on the screen, next.

* * *

"Again!" Adam's call was the gunshot starting the session once more. Ruby launched herself at him with a shot from her scythe and spun it into a wide arc at his chest. He hopped back and began drawing his blade to retaliate, but a flare of fiery gold just out of the corner of his eye forced him to turn and deflect and oncoming punch. Flanked by the two sisters, Adam's only saving grace was the sheer firepower behind their guns made it a poor choice to fire them at such close range. His own blade was little more than a bright-red blur as it bounced from weapon to weapon, target to target.

"Focus!" Was Ruby's only warning when Blush was pointed right at her, and Adam's aura took corporeal form around it, ready to pierce through hers. With a squeak, Ruby brought her scythe up to protect herself, but the shot still grazed by and bit into her side. Ruby's aura flared up in a valiant defense, but just couldn't stop it from slicing across and leaving a cut. She winced and retreated to let her aura patch herself up.

Yang, on the other hand, rushed in, sisterly instincts raging and setting her hair aflame. Throwing her defense aside and going all out, Yang cocked her fist back and lunged at Adam. With a deadly glare, he whipped around in the blink of an eye, ducked and flicked Wilt up in a single strike, raking the tip across the length of her arm. With a shout of pain, she collapsed, and Adam advanced, eyes burning with fury.

"Do not _ever_ throw your defense aside like that against people like them! Had I been fighting to kill, I could have torn your arm off with just that strike: your aura is not the only thing you should depend on," He sheathed his blade and prepared for a second strike. "Never expect your opponents to fight clean, Ya—" Adam's legs were painfully swept out from under him by Ruby's scythe, the sharp sting across his entire aura distracting him too much to do much more than block when she immediately followed it up by snapping Crescent Rose into its polearm form and slamming it down on him.

Ruby's heart was racing: she knew that this was only a training match, but it all _felt_ so real: from the force Adam threw behind his attacks to Yang's blood. Adrenaline threw aside rational thought, and the desire to learn became the desire to protect. From the determination in Ruby's eyes, Adam realized just what he needed to do to force her willpower to truly take form. He snapped a kick into Ruby's shin, snatched Crescent Rose and used her brief weakness to curl up and slam both his feet into her stomach to send her reeling.

"Think on why you fight, why you want to live!" Adam advanced not on Ruby, but on Yang, who was still recovering. She rose up in time to block the first strike, but one after the other, they came quicker. "Your sister, your search, think on them and _focus!_ " Her defense was finally being overwhelmed, strikes barely visible as anything more than a flash of red cracking against Yang's aura. The next blow was heavier, his aura not just gathered like liquid, but beginning to trail off from Wilt's edge.

The only thing Yang as focused on was the adrenaline. As a thrill-seeker, for all the threat that this fight had, there was just as much excitement. With a roar full of the will to fight on, she swung for Adam's blade. Her aura flashed to life when Wilt struck her gauntlets. His blade drew sparks as it ran up the metal, but her aura managed to hold on, forcing Wilt to glide across her arm. Her fist struck him at the same time his blade hit her cheek, and the two were sent flying back.

Adam and Yang skid to a halt on opposite sides of the room, and Yang quickly brought a hand to her cheek. She felt only a thin scratch, more like she'd been struck with a branch than the edge of a blade. Her aura had held up.

"I'm really getting a hang of this! Ha, more like a _Yang_ of this, right—" Her eyes rose up to Adam just in time for him to have closed the distance, the point of his sword driving straight towards her stomach.

Now, it was Ruby who was taken over by adrenaline. For only that moment, all she saw was someone about to stab her sister. In the blink of an eye, Ruby had leaped between Adam and Yang, rose petals trailing behind her as she reached out with her hand and threw her aura out as much as she could. Red light burst to light at the point of contact.

Though Ruby could only push her aura barely an inch away from her, it was enough. Adam's blade was caught by Ruby's aura, unable to move little more than the very point beyond it no matter how hard Adam tried. That brief moment was enough to calm all of their nerves. Adam sheathed Wilt and nodded to them.

"You're catching on a lot quicker than I expected," He admitted. Yang and Ruby, just as tired, crossed their arms with looks of smugness and pride. "Let's take a break, then it's your turn, Ruby..."

"And, just for the record, that fight doesn't count."

* * *

"Well? Do you not have something to say?" Jacques asked with a casual nature barely hiding the demand behind his tone. He was calling from his office: Weiss could see the painting of her father in his younger years, before his hair turned snow-white. His blue eyes pierced through her. Her mouth opened, yet no words came out.

"Hm. An entire month of this childish tantrum and you cannot even manage an apology. I suppose that was to be expected."

"N-no! No, I simply did not expect to see you at this hour, Father. It's wonderful to see you again!" Weiss chirped with a false smile, coincidentally failing to apologize as well. Jacques noticed.

"I don't know how else I would contact my own daughter, since she has been avoiding every call made from Schnee Headquarters." Disappointment oozed from his voice. "But, I suppose if you cared for family, we wouldn't be needing to have this conversation, now, would we? So, let's cut to the chase: why do you ant these documents?"

The world was getting colder to Weiss. Jacques' words always found a way to weigh on her very soul. She hadn't even had a chance to defend herself. "A school project..." She wouldn't have been able to fool herself.

"Don't lie to me. Is this another one of your 'extracurricular activities'?" The only reason he was playing coy was to avoid drawing attention. Weiss' silence was taken as an affirmation. "I guess I wasn't clear enough about this: they are to cease _immediately_ if you wish to remain at Beacon."

Her head bowed, Weiss knew there was only one answer to give: "Yes, Father, I will." She knew that she would not, but, Weiss just could not stop the guilt her father always inspired from trying to sap away her will.

"It is good to know we can agree on something." It wasn't much of a surprise to Weiss when her Scroll pinged: the documents were sent anyway. It was one of her father's favorite little tricks, dangling what he just said not to do just within reach to make sure his children would listen. A door unlocked when they were told to remain in the room, a cooperative cake butler when they were told they were not to have dessert before dinner. He claimed it was to prepare them for a life in power, where the option to do ruinous things would always a word away no matter what. Weiss knew it was just an excuse.

At least he would leave it at that.

"However, I have been hearing a number of negative things about the Kingdom of Vale. Combined with your refusal to so much as call your mother and I, I believe it is time we made a personal visit." And now the world was gone, reduced only to the screen. "I just so happen to have a meeting lined up during the beginning of the Vytal Tournament. A good time to... evaluate your performance at Beacon, wouldn't you say?"

He was met with silence.

"I'll see you there, Daughter. Please do try to keep our name clean." And he was gone. Weiss moved mechanically, standing up and walking back to the elevator in a daze. She gave greetings and nods, but the words themselves were nothing to her. Jacques would be in Vale. Her _family_ would be at the tournament. Watching. Judging. The only one who wouldn't was the one she wanted to see: her sister, Winter. Without warning, the path her entire life would take now came down to a single week. Fail then, and she'd be torn away from every friend she had. At best, she would be forced into Atlas as a stranger amongst already-established teams. At worst... the end of being a Huntress.

The world twisted and turned in Weiss' vision, and the happy chatter of the people of Vale turned into a thunderous din in her mind. She wasn't ready, yet! She needed to summon, she needed to perfect her time dilation, she needed... she needed so much! What would her friends think when they find out just what her family is really like? A sudden fear struck her heart: would Jacques recognize Adam? Or Blake? Could she feign ignorance? What if she failed during the tournament? One fear struck another, and like dominoes triggered countless other awful possibilities until Weiss' dead walk had turned into a panicked jog.

So enraptured in her thoughts, Weiss was, that she didn't notice what was in front of her until she slammed into what felt like a steel pole and was knocked clean onto her back. Thankfully, her borderline hysteria was knocked out of her by the sudden jolt. Not-so-thankfully, the air was knocked right out of her, as well. With an admittedly unladylike groan, she sat up and glanced around in embarrassment, hoping no one saw. Someone turned and offered their hand to her just as Weiss looked up.

"I'm sorry, Miss. I was not paying the correct amount of attention," She apologized monotonously, her eyes widening briefly in recognition before her expression swiftly became plain and blank.

Weiss blinked a few times in confusion, even as she accepted the girl's hand and pulled herself up. "... Penny? Is that you?"

"... No. You must be confused." With a sudden hiccup, Penny accidentally dropped Weiss right back to the ground.

* * *

Mint-green lines of light coursed across a simple, gray prosthetic arm akin to that of a puppet. In the age of machinery that could link to everything from your nerves to your soul, something this lackluster would and should be considered obsolete. The world was on the brink of commonplace cybernetics, and yet, he chose something all but worthless. Less intelligent minds would ask why. Only the wise could understand: it was a reminder of what he had lost! Some would seek to emulate what their arm was like in a futile attempt to seek the past but not he! He embraced the progress made in any direction! He sought only the future!

"Hey Merlot, you've been fiddling with that stupid arm for the past ten minutes: is the operation going smoothly, or what?" Came an agitated voice at his side. Torchwick. He had no appreciation for science or the arts both.

"Have some patience!" Merlot barked, but reluctantly turned his attention ahead. The two were just outside the heavy, steel gates of one of the SDC's more hidden facilities in Vale. Paranoia pushed them to take their research and development far outside Atlas to prevent any competition from even standing a chance at putting their noses here they didn't belong. Little did they know, by moving here, they'd invited just that to their very doorstep.

He closed one eye, and let the cybernetics of his second go into overdrive. More information than any mere human could ever hope to process flooded into his mind: diagnostics of not just himself but the machines he was connected to, camera systems hacked into, blueprints and code all laid bare.

"Humph! This is absolutely ridiculous!"

"What, don't tell me you screwed up your first mission! I'm the one who's going to get the flak for it!"

"What? No!" The gate buzzed and swung open. "We're already done!"

Torchwick blinked in surprise and looked around. Numerous human-sized machines just humanoid enough to be mistaken for organic soldiers from afar were walking around the grounds with their guns at the ready. He instantly raised his cane up to fire... but none of them responded.

Merlot had already begun strolling towards the main building. "Well? What are you waiting for! Honestly, the nerve of that man, using the very code _I_ invented..." He muttered under his breath as the door opened for him. Torchwick warily followed behind, keeping an eye on each machine he passed by. He never trusted those things for the life of him, and that eerie red glow coming from their visors wasn't helping.

The inside was a warzone: SDC workers and scientist laid in splashes of crimson, bullet holes riddled the stark-white walls, and the hallways had the scent of rust. There was no resistance, here. It was a massacre, plain and simple. Torchwick grimaced as he stepped over a body: well, it was exactly what they wanted, he guessed. Merlot peered into a camera, and a final door opened, revealing a grand garage.

Torchwick raised a hand to his ear. "Yo, Cindy," If there was one good thing about being promoted, it was that he just so happened to cross the line right into 'too important to get rid of'. "Send the animals in to mark the place."

Lines of massive, mechanized suits stood before him. Bulky, blocky and probably weighing as much as three cars a piece, but with enough armament to turn a hundred of those cars into scraps. Paladins. Almost a hundred of them.

"We got the goods, alright." Screens lined the walls, their original purpose unknown to him. All they displayed now was a black chess piece. As Merlot went to work opening another section of the garage, Torchwick tapped one of the screens.

"And Merlot's little program is working juuuust fine..."

* * *

 **A/N: Moving time, so I'm afraid this'll be the only update until Friday of next week.  
**


	28. V2: A Plan Is Formed

**A Plan Is Formed**

"I should go!" Penny turned on her heels, let some sort of leaflet slip from her fingers and quickly walked away from Weiss, leaving her confused and stumbling to get to her feet. Grabbing the papers from the air, Weiss jogged after her friend, familial troubles briefly and thankfully forgotten.

"Now, hold on just a minute, you go and vanish for weeks on end and then come back acting like you don't even know me? What happened to you!" Weiss stormed on just beside Penny, but she didn't even throw a glance her way.

"I am sorry, there appears to be a misunderstanding." Penny tried and failed to stifle her quiet hiccup. Upset not just at being forgotten but ignored, Weiss grabbed onto Penny's arm. She froze.

"Penny, I was worried sick about you!" Weiss called to her, but her supposed friend just turned her head away from her entirely. At the least, she didn't pull her arm away. Agitation began to fade into hurt: this wasn't a time here she could take a friend abandoning her so flagrantly. "... Penny, Ruby told me you were at the docks with us, and not just when we all got back together. Did Torchwick and his gang find you, that night, Penny? Did they do anything to you? Did they hurt you?" She all but begged for an answer.

She pulled her arm away, and Weiss threatened to crack. Without looking at her, Penny mumbled just under her breath, "It's not safe to talk here..." Weiss' eyes widened, and her lips parted for questions she knew she couldn't ask. Penny was in danger. She fought the trembling in her hand as she brought it back to herself. Weiss glanced down at the leaflet, wondering if the answers were there.

It was a brochure for Beacon.

"... I see. You're entirely correct, Miss, I was mistaken, after all. I apologize for harassing you in such an awful manner!" Penny's brow rose at Weiss' complete one-eighty. "Here, you dropped this. I hope you can forgive this inconvenience." Weiss handed the brochure back to Penny. She tentatively reached out to grab it when Weiss tapped her thumb impatiently. Now, Penny was truly confused—wait a moment...

Weiss was tapping one of the many pictures on the leaflet: one of Beacon's library, the largest in the world, it claimed. Upon spotting that gleam of realization, she flashed Penny a slim smile. Thankfully nodding to Weiss, she smiled right back at her, and the two—albeit briefly—went their separate ways.

* * *

Had she misunderstood? Penny stood at the entrance to Beacon's library, nervous and with her eyes scanning her surroundings constantly. No sign of Weiss. They would no doubt realize that she was missing any moment, now, and her excuse of 'just wandering around' was feeling thinner by the moment. She jolted as a hand dropped onto her shoulder from behind her. Too late, she was found out!

"Are you sure everything's alright?" Weiss asked her and lightly squeezed her shoulder. Penny sighed in relief and smiled weakly.

"I'm a-okay, now, Weiss!" Her eyes imperceptibly widened; General Ironwood himself, surrounded by a squad of Atlesian soldiers, were making their way towards them at a leisurely rate. They didn't appear to see the her, just yet. "We should probably talk inside, though!" Penny abruptly decided and began dragging Weiss off into the library. Though she had little chance of breaking free from her insanely strong grip, Weiss still struggled and tried to find out just what was going on, here.

"You're starting to worry me again, Penny, what is going on!"

"Uh, nothing at all!" Penny tried and and failed to stifle a hiccup. "I was just feeling cold, outside!" Along with the second.

Weiss finally wriggled her way out of Penny's grasp by the time she'd pulled them to an empty reading corner in the library. Windows allowed the afternoon sun to beam in, and gave a nice view to the plaza outside.

"Alright, that is enough. We're friends, are we not?" Weiss crossed her arms and stared Penny down.

"Oh, of course we are!"

"And friends talk to each other about things, _don't they?_ "

"Uh, well, I mean..." Caught by her own words, Penny hugged herself and shifted from side to side, floundering in trying to come up with a retort. Finally, she just blurted out: "I'm not supposed to be here, right now!"

Weiss simply stared at her in disbelief at how little her panic was really about. "You're... sneaking out?" She asked flatly.

"Yes, well, mostly! My father asked me not to venture very far from his side, you see. I've never been to another kingdom, before, and he was terribly specific about not coming to Beacon without him," Penny continued, too wrapped up to notice Weiss' brief grimace.

"Sounds controlling..." She murmured under her breath.

"Oh, no, no, you have to understand, my father loves me very much, he just worries a lot."

"Well, the last time you left, you _did_ manage to find yourself in the middle of a White Fang raid," Weiss teased with a hint of a smile. That appeared to placate Penny's fears, and she smiled back as she took a seat near the window.

"He... wasn't too happy about the incident. Unfortunately, while I would love to help, I have not seen any of those men or the girl with the umbrella since then."

"Then why couldn't you tell us what had happened?" Weiss had taken to watching the window, wondering who was Penny running from. The only one that she could see, though, was General Ironwood showing off the latest enhancements to their Atlesian Knights, his voice amplified over the speakers until it could be heard even beyond the window. Students and visiting civilians both were already beginning to gather around. She certainly didn't look rich, but, perhaps she had bodyguards of her own looking for her, anyway? Perhaps if she was a politician's daughter...

Penny hesitated. "I was... _asked_ not to talk to you, anymore. Or Ruby, or Yang... anybody, really."

"Your father," Weiss said, crinkling her nose in disdain and looking back at Penny, "certainly does worry, doesn't he?" She couldn't hide the hint of worry about just how controlling her father really sounded. All too similar to her own...

"Oh, no, it wasn't my father, it was..." Penny trailed off and, with a sigh, glanced aside.

"General Ironwood, sir," someone from outside called just loud enough to be heard. "Atlas has so many robots and androids for their civilians, but what about us Huntsmen to be? What is there for us?"

Ironwood gained a pleasant smile and replied, "I'm glad you asked. As you may know, the Atlesian military has always been striving to remove men from the dangers of the battlefield, but, we cannot ignore the power Huntsmen provide, nor the danger they are put in, alone. We are proud to announce that our new Atlesian Knights are not just smarter, but autonomous enough to assist Huntsmen even outside the kingdoms' walls: Atlas would gladly lose ten machines to make sure that one person remains safe." There was a chorus of light applause. Weiss, having been waiting for a reply, noticed Penny's gaze was now locked on the showing outside.

"However, there are still many situations that undoubtedly require... a _human_ touch." As Ironwood droned on, Weiss leaned over, trying to subtly get her friend's attention. "So, our kingdom's greatest minds, in collaboration with the Schnee Dust Company," Weiss' attention was dragged to him just like Penny. "Have gathered to create our latest champion in the war against Grimm, the Atlesian Paladin!" Ironwood turned and clicked a remote, and surreptitiously placed projectors came to life, displaying the new war machine.

'Juggernaut' was perhaps a more apt term. Ironwood claimed that the Atlesian Knight-200s were less frightening than their predecessors, but the Paladin more than made up for them. Standing 12 feet tall and almost just as wide, it held an aura of fear and power that struck awe into the people watching. It had no neck to speak of, instead being a giant, insectoid head mounted onto the torso, its arms were two gigantic cannons, and its smooth, exoskeleton-esque structure was held up by two bulbous legs thicker than trees. It was a metal monster her company had helped create.

"Weiss, I think we should leave..." Penny called with a hint of warning in her tone, her attention now drawn to something else entirely. Unfortunately, the mention of her company was just enough of a nudge to push reality back to the forefront of her mind. Ironwood's promoting of the Paladin fell on deaf ears for Weiss, now, and her eyes gazed past him and his creation entirely. She was abruptly pulled out of her trance when Penny suddenly got up. Weiss' eyes darted from her back to the window, and she could see just what had Penny so frightened: two soldiers were pointing in their direction.

Penny took off just as they started jogging to the library.

"Wait, Penny, where are you—" Weiss gave up trying to get an answer with an aggravated huff and took off after Penny. To her surprise and chagrin both, however, even in the tight spaces between the bookshelves, Penny was far and away faster than her. Zipping past patrons and up flights of stairs, the gap between Penny and Weiss only shortened when the panicking girl would stop and try to think of somewhere to go. Finally, Weiss had her cornered on a walkway on the highest floor. Curtains swayed next to open windows that left a nice breeze.

"Enough is enough! Just who _are_ you? Why are there soldiers chasing you? What is _happening!_ " She advanced on Penny, frustration and genuine worry warping her tone into a fierce storm. Penny stumbled back, eyes darting from her to the floors below where confused students gladly pointed out to the nice Atlesian soldiers where she'd went. Her breathing grew quick, and Weiss' words fell on deaf ears as she continued to step backwards without looking. Unheard words became unheard warnings. By the time Weiss lunged for Penny, it was too late.

She'd tumbled right through the open window, and plummeted down four stories to the hard ground. Weiss held back a scream as she rushed over to where she'd fallen from: there was no way she would've had time to activate her aura, not while she was this panicked.

At least, that was what Weiss _thought,_ because by the time her eyes found Penny, she was shakily pushing herself up from the cracked pavement and running off again. Weiss' shoulders slumped. Penny did not look so much as fazed by the impact. Even _with_ aura, that would have been bizarre. The heiress narrowed her eyes: it was time to get to the bottom of this. If she couldn't outrun Penny, she'd just have to outsmart her, instead!

The two Atlesian soldiers got up the stairs just in time to see the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company casually hop from the window.

* * *

Oooh, she knew she should've kept the pamphlet: it had a map on it! Penny jogged from street to street, pathway to pathway: she wasn't a fool, she knew that, in the end, Beacon had only one safe way in or out, and that was the docks. It didn't mean she couldn't at least try to lose her pursuers: maybe they'd just think she was lost and was panicking? Yes! That was a great story, and she was sticking to it—eep!

Penny spun around an alleyway corner only to have her feet locked in place. She glanced down: a flickering, black glyph was turning on the ground beneath her. She looked up: Weiss stood right before her, arms crossed and an agitated look on her face. Penny tried to turn away, but the glyph only grew larger, trapping her. There was nowhere left to run. Penny shoved her arms behind her back.

"Answers," Weiss flatly demanded.

"I-I'm fine, Weiss! _Hic!_ I just don't want to talk about it! _Hic!_ " Penny whimpered and wriggled against the glyph until, with a pained look, Weiss let her free.

"Can't you just let me help you? You helped me, didn't you?"

"No, no, no no, this is different, you... you wouldn't understand," She tried to insist, glancing routinely over her shoulder.

"At least let me _try,_ then! Come on," With a weak smile, Weiss stepped closer and tried to put the same disarming cheer in her voice as her leader always did. "I'm all ears!" Penny twitched in place, her lip quivering as her friends' words reminded her not just of their 'true' meeting, but of the fact that she'd, in the end, listened to Weiss' problems in her time of dire need, just as she wanted to do for her. Would it really be so bad for her to return the favor?

Penny brought her gaze to meet Weiss' own. "... We're friends, right? Always?"

"Always."

Taking a deep breath, the girl shakily brought her arms out from behind her back. Her sleeves were scuffed and torn from her fall, but Weiss' eyes were not drawn to the tears in her clothes. No, those orbs of ice-blue were locked onto the tears in her _skin_ , revealing flexible sheets of metal and dimly glowing, mint-green light.

"Weiss," Penny tentatively began, "I'm... not a real girl."

* * *

"Any luck?" Yang leaned over Ruby's shoulder to watch her Scroll. Just great, another missed call to Weiss. She'd texted her, like, five times, too! Nothing!

Ruby groaned and snapped the device shut. "Nope, no dice! I wonder where she ran off to..." She wondered aloud as she slipped it back into her pocket.

"Maybe back to one of her fancy hotels?" Yang offered.

"I don't think she'd go _that_ far... you don't think she ran off again, do you?"

"Well, she certainly isn't back in our room," Came a dry reply from Adam as he strode back into the room from their dorm. He did well hiding the worry beginning to grow within him. "I don't like this. Not one bit."

"You don't think _she_ got to her, do you?" Yang inquired with a low voice and cracked her knuckles. She didn't care if they weren't supposed to interfere with her openly, if that woman went after her team, heads were gonna roll!

"Pfft, Weiss'll be fine! She's probably just... I don't know, pouting somehwere!" Optimistic as ever, Ruby tried to wave it off.

"Doubtful," Adam disagreed. "I don't see Weiss doing that."

Yang snorted and playfully jabbed Adam's side before joking, "Have you met Weiss? She's totally pouting." Adam only rolled his eyes and turned away to leave.

"All the more reason to follow, then: we all know what happened _last_ time she stormed off." And with that, he jogged off, barely even giving Ruby and Yang a chance to respond.

"I swear, she better have a good reason for spooking us like this!" The blonde huffed.

* * *

"Wha..." Weiss' thoughts were a jumbled mess. Knowing her team was being taught to battle and slay man before even their second year was bad. Finding out that her father was coming to Beacon, and that merely being grounded had turned into disinheritance hanging above her head like a sword held by a single hair was worse. But this? This made the rest of her problems seem absolutely minuscle in comparison.

After all, how many problems in her life went against literally everything she knew to be true? Against the very concept of aura and souls?

How many problems compared to your friend being a _robot?_

... Oh, right, she was one of the few people standing in the way of some kingdom-threatening conspiracy involving the entire underworld. Penny was trying to explain something to her, but Penny not even being real was the straw that broke the camel's back: the mere comparison to the rest of the day sent the weight of Weiss' problems crashing down onto her all at once and _wow_ the ground was getting awfully close right about now—

Weiss feinted.

"W-Weiss? Weiss! Are you okay?" Penny dropped to her knees and shook Weiss, but to no avail: she was out like a light. "Oooh, I knew this would happen..." She hoped against hope that Weiss, of all people, would understand her. Maybe she was just... really surprised?

The tussling of her optimism and fears was abruptly cut off by the rough barks of men coming down the alleyway. She took a sharp breath and jumped to her feet. Penny looked around: she couldn't just leave Weiss lying there, especially with all of these mean men after her! But if she was found with the heiress knocked out like this... it wouldn't just be her father she'd need to worry about. Finally, her eyes fell upon the perfect solution: a trash bin!

"Sorry, Weiss..." Scooping Weiss up with no effort at all, she unceremoniously kicked the lid off, dumped Weiss in and slammed the lid back down. She barely even had time to sigh before the two guards rounded the corner, winded and more than a little upset. Putting on her best smile, Penny spun around and innocently waved to the two.

"Sal-u-tations, officers!"

* * *

The remaining members of RWAY were in full panic. Weiss' disappearance had gone from a nuisance to a genuine worry very quickly. Adam shot across the rooftops without a care for anyone who saw, little more than a black and red blur racing above the streets. His Scroll rang only once before his hand snapped into his pocket and brought it to his ear.

"I checked Beacon Docks and with the airship operators: no sign of Weiss, she _has_ to still be in Beacon somewhere! Sectors, uh... three and four were cleared by Yang, no sign of her there, either!" Ruby had managed to set up basic sectors for the group to scan: at risk that this was an assault by Cinder and her crew, beyond a check to make sure she was alright, they decided not to bring Blake into this. Adam was in charge of watching over the CCT: it was a larger region, but his senses were far and away superior even without aura.

"I'll make another call and search for her Scroll in sector two. Converge on my location, we're running out of places to look." He hung up and came to a halt atop one of the many buildings under the CCT's grand shadow. Adam sat down and pulled the homburg hat from his head with a snarl. If Cinder left even a single scratch on Weiss, he would steal Blake away and turn this entire damned campus into a warzone. Adam knew more than any the difference between idle threats and actually acting upon them: they could dance around and posture all they wish, but only when a threat was made good did the others truly mean anything.

And if she crossed that line, if she made good on those threats...

Instinct and rage had him hurl his hat away, rationality coming all too late for him to snatch it back before it tumbled into the alley below. Growling, Adam flashed down and grabbed it before it even hit the ground. Think! _Concentrate!_ This would be exactly what that woman would want. With a sigh, he withdrew his Scroll and called Weiss' own, again. If she were kidnapped in the alleyways, there would be a thin chance that her Scroll would have been left behind on the grounds—

 _Buzz_

Or in the trashcan. A vicious smirk crossed Adam's face as he casually flicked the lid off... and was met with Weiss blearily waking up inside, looking certainly dirty but otherwise completely unharmed.

Emerald met ice-blue.

"... Dare I ask _how_ you got in here?"

* * *

It took a while to get RWAY off of her back and from teasing her relentlessly for managing to wind up in a trashcan with supposedly no memory of the events beforehand—not that they'd ever believe the truth—but Weiss eventually settled back into normalcy. In truth, she had no plans to tell her team much of anything that happened, friends or not. While Ruby might not mind much at the news her father was showing up, Yang would _undoubtedly_ start thinking of embarrassing ways to get back at him if she figured out how sour the family life truly was.

And _Adam..._ look, she trusted him! It wasn't like she expected him to go on a murderous rampage or assassinate her father, but... was it really so wrong to not dangle the White Fang's dream in front of one of its former leaders?

Her mind decided not to even grace that with an answer, especially considering he was sitting right across from her with the team almost two weeks after that little incident—two weeks without so much as a glimpse of Penny, Weiss sadly reminded herself—to discuss how to stop the White Fang in their dorm. At least, that was supposed to be what their meeting was about. Instead...

"Holy smokes! The dance is in, like, two weeks!" Ruby suddenly exclaimed in the middle of their scheming and, just like that, all hope of returning the conversation to its original topic died.

"Two?! I still need to get a date!" Yang exclaimed in shock as she sprung up from her bed.

"We need dresses!"

"You _need_ to focus," Adam sharply cut in. "Let us not forget that Cinder will not wait for some silly dance to pass before making her move. If anything, that is when we will be the most vulnerable."

"Aw, come on, Adam, we gotta live a little!" Yang whined.

"We'll be living a lot _less_ if Cinder gets her way."

Weiss sighed before raising her hand to get their attention and saying, "I agree with Ruby and Yang: if we do not take the time to relax, we will simply run ourselves ragged, and then where will we be?"

Adam narrowed his eyes. "Is this about me agreeing on bunk beds?"

"W-what? No! This is a completely valid agreement, not contradicting for contradiction's sake! Honestly, do I really look like the kind of person who would stoop to such petty means of striking back?"

The room was silent.

"... We've been studying these Dust robbery chains for the past two weeks!" Yang complained over Weiss' scoff at just being ignored.

"This may be true," Adam tried to speak.

"And we've all been at the top of the sparring charts for the past _month_ even without all of this additional training," Weiss helpfully added.

"Yes, however—"

"Not to mention all that vigilante stuff you've been dragging me on," Ruby grumbled.

"Now, hold on, that was entirely of your own accord—"

"Vigilante stuff? What vigilante stuff?" Weiss questioned.

"If I could just get a word in—"

"What? I'm pretty sure we told you, Weiss, the whole 'Ace of Spades, Queen of Hearts' thing?" Yang chimed.

"Girls—"

"I think they're calling us 'Blackjack' now!" Ruby beamed with pride, even if it was wearing her out, recently.

 _"Would you all just—"_

"How am I the _last_ person to know about this?! I thought we were best friends!" Weiss turned her attention to Adam. "And I thought _you_ were my partner!" Being addressed directly by Weiss as if he was not clearly trying to speak was the last straw.

 _ **"Be SILENT!"**_ Adam shouted, and finally got his wish. He ran a hand through his hair and let out a deep sigh, enjoying that brief, wondrous silence before continuing. "You win. Go to the dance. Have fun." He got up to his feet. "I will handle the work if need be: you're all right, you need some rest." Grumbling it under his breath and ignoring the protests against his departure, he grabbed Wilt and walked out of the room just to get some fresh air.

"What's the point of going if we _all_ don't go?" Ruby mumbled sadly under her breath and all but deflated. A frown tugged at Weiss' lips: she completely agreed with Ruby, but, she couldn't let _them_ know that.

Yang, however, rubbed her chin, eyes boring into the door Adam let slam shut behind him. With a smirk, she proudly declared, "He's totally coming. I'm making sure of that!"

"Oh, yes, I'm certain that the one thing that will get Adam to the dance is trying to beat him up. Why don't you let _me_ handle this: a little rationality should do him good, for once!" Weiss crossed her arms and started walking off to the door, herself. Yang huffed and glanced around the room for any ideas to salvage her plan... until they fell on Ruby. She grinned wide: she had the perfect plan.

"Why don't we make this a group effort..."

* * *

 **A/N: The dance happening _before_ the rally against Torchwick? Odd, indeed...**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	29. V2: And The Prom's Tomorrow!

**And The Prom's Tomorrow!**

* * *

 **A/N: Oh, rare pre-chapter note! Just mentioning for those who might be worried(considering half of V2 is the size of all of V1), the plot is not on pause and, in fact, is going to be rapidly moving from the end of this chapter on.  
**

* * *

 _They're just girls, Adam._ His mind tried to placate his agitation as Adam read through his current notes on the Dust robbery sprees Weiss had done research into. He'd gotten himself comfortable against the very same tree he'd happened to find Velvet's book against. Not too long after, the two tended to meet up there, and Adam was reluctant to admit that it did feel just a tad bit lonely without her around here. Perhaps, he could ask her to the dance—

No. None of that. There was still so much work to do. The girls had their reasons to be so focused on something so foolish and wasteful: they were teenagers, they were students, and they didn't exactly ask for their current situation. Not until they were older, anyway. They had deserved this. _He_ had brought the enemy to their doorstep. To Blake's doorstep.

Adam's eyes flicked up from his Scroll to the students of Beacon meandering about, some with intent, others aimless and wandering. He caught the eye of a cheetah faunus who happily saluted him—the very one whose saving had provoked the creation of his little faunus brigade in the first place. She had now cast aside her hood, letting her ears sit freely. On her arm was a black armband formed from just a large, tied ribbon. It was becoming a familiar sight amongst the faunus, one that some, admittedly, were not that fond of: they were those that Adam taught. Those who could defend themselves not by being submissive or invoking terror, but through strength.

He was bringing the enemy to their doorstep, as well.

As Adam saluted back with the faintest hint of a smile on his lips, his eyes caught something: a flicker of red darting away behind the pillar of a nearby building. His eyes briefly narrowed, but he fell back to his work.

Until another flicker caught his eye. Adam glanced up one again and waited: no sign of movement. A frown began pulling down at his lips. Was he seeing things? This time, he merely pretended to be sifting through his scroll until the red returned. Now, he caught a good glimpse of what was drawing his attention: it was very clearly a red cape.

Now, Adam was a mostly rational man. At times. Usually. That being said, he could recognize that his tendency to always wear a hat and the fact that he was currently teaching a class of mostly faunus how to defend themselves after personally defending two in particular would lead many in Beacon to believe he was a faunus, himself. That being said, if this person was trying to get his attention—and from the incessant waving that kept distracting him, it _was_ —with a crimson cape, then there was no doubt in his mind that they knew he was a bull faunus.

Only three groups in this school would know that.

Adam closed his scroll and slowly rose up to his feet before making a beeline for the pillar the offender was hiding behind.

He wasn't entirely sure if there was a single person in any of those groups he would not beat—no, have a _stern talking to_ , the part of his mind that wanted him to actually stay at Beacon reminded him—if he found out they were blatantly making fun of that trait. A short distance away from the pillar, the cape waved again. Adam flashed behind it in an instant, putting all of his speed into the element of surprise.

The crimson cloak fluttered to the ground. The perpetrator ran off like a coward. Adam swore if this was Cardin or something running on one of his little rumors, a 'stern talking to' wouldn't be enough. Besides, only an imbecile believed that it was really a red cloth waving that inspired such rage in bulls. Anyone who actually did their research into their target would know that it was entirely motion-based—and there it was again! Further, now! Shifting from corner to corner, pillar to pillar, tree to tree, leading him further away!

If they wanted a chase, then they'd _get_ one. God help the one doing this when he caught them! Adam found himself dimly glowing as he darted from location to location, just _barely_ too slow to catch the perpetrator before they, too, were gone in a faceless blur. Finally, he caught it waving in the window of an empty classroom. Adam clicked open his blade and shot inside: if this was an ambush, they made a grave mistake in enraging him beforehand.

Instead, however, as he spun around to face the soon-to-be-dead man insulting him in such a manner, he found the rest of his team lingering around the door. With a pleased smile, Weiss, who was holding Ruby's cloak, closed the door.

"We need to have a chat," Yang teasingly said with a grin from one corner of the room.

Adam stared at the three for a few seconds. Maybe they were just ignorant on how offensive that was, but his faunus pride wasn't letting rationality get in the way of righteous anger. He cracked his neck. "You have fifteen seconds to explain why this isn't going to be an impromptu 'sparring match'."

"You're going to the dance," The blonde continued as if she hadn't even heard that.

"Twelve seconds."

"Awww come on, Adam, if we all don't go, it'll feel like something's missing! You wouldn't ruin our fun like that, would you, Adam?" Ruby asked in what Adam was certain was a shameless attempt at guilt tripping him.

"... _Five_ seconds." That being said, he was somewhat worried that it was working, if only a little. Those silver puppy eyes Ruby was giving him certainly wasn't helping his situation. He sneered and turned his gaze away.

"Cut the crap, Adam," That coming from the prim and proper heiress, of all people caught Adam off-guard. "If one day is going to prevent us from bringing an end to Cinder's scheming, then we never stood a chance in the first place. It's time to wake up, Adam: having _fun_ won't kill you." Weiss casually strolled up to the man whose countdown to attack just ended.

"Besides, if one day would've stopped us, the whole... oh, what was it, _entire vacation_ we wasted would have doomed us outright, now, wouldn't it have?"

Adam was silent, mulling it over. They had him beaten and beaten _hard._ He hadn't even been able to put up a good fight, this time, too: how embarrassing. He finally let out a sigh of defeat.

"How about if I throw a dance in there?" Yang's jest gave Adam the out he needed without looking like he was just rolled over by their combined points. Maybe she knew his pride would've been hurt.

"Deal." He didn't even hesitate to take it.

Weiss threw up her arms in frustration. "Really? _That's_ what it took?"

Ruby stifled her giggles. "What, are you jealous?"

"Ugh, don't _you_ start on that too!"

Yang rubbed her chin and looked over the three before wondering aloud, "Who _are_ you all taking to the dance, anyway?" The sputters, mumbling and aside glances told her all she needed. "Really? Not _one_ of you has any ideas?"

"H-honestly, as a heiress to a company as _prestigious_ as the Schnee Dust Company," Weiss disregarded Adam's bark of laughter to speak on: "There is a most rigorous, stringent and, most importantly, _long_ process I must adhere to in order to decide whether or not any of my suitors are fit to court me."

"No one's asked her yet," Ruby cut in, leaving Weiss blushing hotly with embarrassment.

"H-hey! There's been... one—"

"Is it Jaune?"

"... Look, nobody's asked you, either!"

"Oops, that might be my fault." Yang chuckled nervously to herself.

"I don't even want one, what's wrong with just going with your friends!" Her sister protested.

"I second this. I'll be doing the same, anyway," Adam agreed, earning scoffs and shock from both Yang and Weiss.

"No dates? Where's the fun in that! We're, like, the best first years in Beacon, we gotta wow 'em!" Yang declared with determination in her eyes.

And in a rare case for something so frivolous, Weiss actually agreed: "And as students bound to be influential in later years, we have an image to uphold!"

As Ruby and Adam only glanced at one another with looks of faint confusion and disgruntlement both, Yang continued and targeted Adam himself with, "Since I can just stop paying a visit to first years getting any ideas about Ruby, that just leaves _you_ to worry about, Adam. We've gotta get rid of that menacing aura of yours!"

"Excuse me?"

"Come on, don't tell me you aren't doing that on purpose. Just smile a little and show a soft side, and we'll have the whole Academy clamoring for us in no time!" Weiss nodded thoughtfully with a confident smirk beside Yang as she went on. Probably, Adam thought, to make sure that the three didn't round back onto her.

"... What a foolish notion," He mumbled as he shook his head. This was silly. This was nigh-on insane, and the fact that Yang could casually suggest this even more so. Though, he would be lying to himself if he said he didn't find at least a little humor in this entire situation. In fact, the more he thought about it, the funnier it became: here he was, a year after directing a war on humanity, talking with three human girls about getting dates for a _school dance_ of all things. It was like a picture into another life: had things turned out differently, perhaps he could have legitimately found himself here amongst the upperclassmen.

There was a hint of sadness to those rambling thoughts, though: if that were the case, it was unlikely he would have ever become friends with the rest of RWAY.

 _Snap_

Adam blinked at the sound of a camera going off somewhere, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Apologies, I was thinking of other... things..." He narrowed his eyes at the sight in front of him: Yang was holding up her Scroll with a dopey grin, Ruby mirroring her sister and standing beside her. Weiss looked disgruntled about something, her eyes turned away from them altogether.

The former terrorist realized he'd been smiling. The departure from his usual expression vanished in an instant, replaced by a sharp glare and a snarl.

"Aaand uploaded!" Yang chimed in a sing-song tone. "I knew you'd look better without, y'know, looking like you're going to kill someone." She said, staring right up into Adam's murderous gaze.

He might not have truly been able to bring himself to hate the three for it, but Adam would be damned if he couldn't at least _look_ like he did.

* * *

Jaune awoke at midnight to the sound of his Scroll buzzing. Groaning, he patted around his surroundings until he could find it and forced himself to sit up. With a yawn, he looked at the caller ID: Unknown Number. Greaaat. Just his luck, telemarketers would manage to get a hold of his school number. He answered the call and was ready to tell whoever was on the other side in the most certain, quietest terms that he was absolutely not interested.

 **"Jaune Arc. I have your transcripts,"** A male voice cold and commanding even through what was clearly some sort of modulator or something immediately began speaking. **"Your _real_ transcripts."**

He was found out again? So soon? Cardin had done a real number to his reputation—alright, Jaune could barely even _think_ of him having a 'reputation' with a straight face—but he didn't have any proof. If this new guy did...

Shoulders already slumped in defeat, Jaune looked over the sleeping figures of his team. A team he cheated his way onto. Quietly, he murmured, "What do you want..."

 **"I've heard rumors you have something that can assist me. Meet me on the rooftop above CRDL's room. You should know well where that is. Do not disappoint me,"** And just like that, the voice hung up. Jaune winced: he even knew where he was training? Great, juuust great. After curfew, no less, though he guessed on second thought that being caught after curfew was probably better than the alternative. With a sigh, Jaune slipped off to change from his blue onesie pajamas, but stopped.

You know what? No! He was tired of being kept down! He was gonna march out there, pajamas and all, and show this guy just how little he cared! He'd trained hard, he'd done his work, and Jaune Arc wasn't going to lie down and let himself be walked over. Nothing was going to dissuade him from this, now!

* * *

Oh sweet heavens it was cold outside, tonight.

Jaune tapped his foot impatiently on the rooftop and hugged himself tighter. Never before had he regretted a decision so quickly. These pajamas were not meant for the cold at _all._

 **"Interesting."** Jaune yelped at the and spun around to face the only door to or off the roof. The speaker was cast in shadow, yet Jaune could still feel the disdain pouring off of him.

 **"I did not anticipate,"** The figure tossed something over his shoulder, presumably his modulator, for his voice fell freely, now. "You managing to make this even more demeaning than it needed to be..." It was a familiar voice. He strode out from the doorway and into the moonlight, emerald eyes staring down upon Jaune in a mix of disappointment and second-hand embarrassment.

"... Adam? _You're_ blackmailing me?"

"Correct," Adam continued walking right past him and up to the edge of the rooftop. He sighed to himself. There was one last thing he needed to prepare for to be ready for the dance. Unfortunately, to keep rumors from spreading, he had to do perhaps the single most demeaning thing in his life. "I need something from you."

Jaune furrowed his brow, still not entirely sure how to take all of this. He wondered if this was just some big joke and the rest of RWAY were about to jump out from the doorway laughing. "What?"

Adam gritted his teeth, swallowed his pride, and turned to face him.

"I need you to teach me how to dance."

... This _had_ to be a joke.

* * *

Unfortunately for both of them, it wasn't. Luckily for Adam, at least, after so many times vanishing in the middle of the night to be the Ace of Spades, no one questioned why he would leave at night and return both tired and severely frustrated, both at his own ineptitude and the fact that, as much as he hated to admit it, Jaune was actually a good teacher. Once, that is, he all but threatened Jaune in order to have him actually be critical.

A mere two days before the dance, however, one of those nights was interrupted by a call from Ilia. Fortunately for him—and unfortunately for the three girls still asleep—it brought with it some very interesting news.

"Wake up, we've got a problem!" Adam's shout as he threw open the door was responded to by a myriad of confused, sleepy cries, Yang rolling off of her bed and at least one pillow being thrown at him. Undeterred, he strode purposefully into the room and, after casually flicking a pillow at Weiss, continued: "The White Fang are planning something massive!"

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Yang grumbled and climbed back on her bed. "Tell us something we don't know."

"How is this: there is news all the way in Menagerie about the Vale White Fang reporting that its membership is about to _double._ " Now, _that_ got their attention.

Weiss sat up straight and leaned over the bed. "Double?! How can they suddenly grow that fast?!" She cried.

"Normally, the White Fang searches out and recruits members one-by-one, but there are rare times when they will hold recruitment rallies," Adam explained.

"But if they're going to _double_ their numbers, this must be a _huge_ rally! They must've been planning this for a long time... how come no one's noticed?" Ruby wondered out loud.

Yang snapped her fingers. "The Dust robberies and the gang war! They've been a _cover_ this entire time to hide the prep for the rally!" She realized as she sat up. "So, when is it?"

"... I'm not certain. We're smart enough not to spread our information very far, lest someone be captured. All we know is that there _will_ be a rally, and a massive one, at that."

"Well, we know what we're looking for, don't we?" Weiss crossed her arms and let her legs dangle off the bed. "That just means we can begin asking the right questions. I didn't think that it meant anything at the time, however, I have been seeing a sudden downturn in the number of clashes between the Torches and the White Fang. It could be attributed to the two sides staying in their territory, however, knowing Cinder's come all the way here _and_ the White Fang are going to double their numbers?"

"Sounds like Cinder might be paving the way for 'peace' between the two sides. That'd leave the whole criminal underworld against us!" Ruby sounded just a little too happy about that fact.

"And speaking of criminal underworld, I know just who to talk to if you want some answers," Yang offered. "Well, I know who _you'll_ be talking to. I think after the _second_ time I wrecked up his club, he won't be too happy with me hanging around," She said with a chuckle.

"Oooh, can I come?" Ruby peered down from her bed.

" _You're_ lucky I even let you go out to beat up bad guys after I found you sneaking into the club the first time, Missy!" Yang shot back with a devious smile. Ruby groaned and flopped back onto her bed.

"Weiss and I can collect the information tomorrow night, then, and I believe I know exactly how we will do so..."

* * *

Junior leaned against the bar's counter with his head in his hands and let out a deep, rumbling sigh just barely heard over the thumping music of his club. Adam and Weiss sat across from him, both with confident smirks as they leaned forward. The club was open yet again and, while the numbers certainly took hits at first, the bar brawls and clashes were giving his business a dangerous feel that was starting to bring people in droves hoping to see another glimpse of all the excitement this place kept attracting.

And right now, it was beginning to look a lot like it was about to happen _yet again._

"So, let me get this straight," The giant of a man began.

"You slice my front door in half," He glared at Adam who merely smirked back.

"Freeze my men to the wall," That glare went down to Weiss, but only got a shrug for its efforts.

"Storm into _my_ club, and you want _me_ to answer _your_ questions?"

"We'll pay," Weiss said facetiously.

"It's not about payment! I should have the Twins throw you out on your rear ends, not take _business_ from you!" Junior threw his arms up and, with a groan, finally surrendered to his frustration and poured himself a drink.

"So be it, Junior. It's clear we will have to make this worth your while. How about we play a little game? You versus the heiress. You win, and we'll not only pay for our losses but for everything our partner caused. We win, however, and we get the info," Adam offered.

"And the money, of course," Weiss added. Adam glanced down at her. She grinned back.

A seasoned veteran of the underworld versus a cocky heiress. Even knowing their little reputation they built for themselves cleaning out a few overconfident gangsters, Junior knew he could have them paying out the nose for Blondie's screw ups.

"You know what?" He waved a henchman over to cover the bar and drained his drink. "I'm game. It's about time someone teach you two kids a lesson, anyway. Why don't we head to the back. Let me guess, hold 'em, right?"

This was going to be a piece of cake, Junior thought.

* * *

That was a piece of cake, Weiss thought. Junior was slumped over the table staring at the river. He wasn't just beaten, he was _destroyed_. The incessant arguing of the Malachite twins about how they'd cheated was little more than a quiet din in the back of his mind compared to the frustrated thoughts rushing through his head. How in the world did that even happen? He was certain he'd even fixed the cards! Junior looked up at Weiss, who had a pleasant little smile on her face and her hand outstretched towards him, wordlessly demanding his side of the deal. Adam stood just behind her, a hand on her chair and the other gripping his weapon. He might've looked smug, but Junior knew full well he was here to make sure he paid up.

His teens and himself put together couldn't stop Blondie. An ex-terrorist leader and a Schnee heiress? He'd be dead before he blinked. He lost.

"Alright, alright, enough, you two," Junior waved off the two arguing teens. "You won. Maybe not fair. Maybe not square. But you won. Now, what do you want?"

Weiss motioned to her hand and, begrudgingly, Junior gave up the lien. "Now, then. We've heard a few things about a certain major White Fang recruitment rally going on, nearby. We just need to know where and when it is taking place."

The giant arched an eyebrow and did not even try to hide his curious glance up at Adam. "That's it? The rally?" Junior laughed openly and leaned back in his seat. All this, just for some bargain bin info like the rally! God, he'd need a few more drinks when they left.

"Is there an issue?" Adam's cold voice brought a swift end to Junior's laughter.

He cleared his throat and replied, "Well, no. I just thought someone like you would've already known. Five miles east of here, there's a warehouse, right. Top floors' windows are busted, and its across the street from an abandoned lot. 600 Magnolia Street, hard to miss. Word's been going around that the White Fang's been using the Dust robberies to keep the authority's eyes on the shops and not on their recruiters. They've been moving a whole lotta supplies over there: something big's going on, but I don't know what, and that's the truth."

"And what about that ruffian, Roman Torchwick? Any news about him?" Weiss inquired.

Junior scowled, flashing a genuine sign of anger for once, rather than mere frustration. "Oh, that rat bastard. He's got his men running all over this city, but I haven't seen heads or tails of him or his little pipsqueak assistant, and for good reason. The last time I loaned him some men, they never came back, and the next time I hear from him he's practically carved out half the underworld to himself. I don't know where he is, but, if you're trying to stop him, go ahead and give him an extra shot in the gut for me."

"I'll be sure to think about it." Adam replied with a dark chuckle.

"What time is the rally taking place?" Weiss chose to ignore the more... vicious comments between the two.

"Tomorrow, at 9PM. It's a good thing you came here, now: you almost missed it." Junior arched an eyebrow as Weiss' eyes widened and Adam looked rather amused by the date. "What, you two know something I don't?"

Adam waved his hand dismissively and moved to pat Weiss' shoulder. "No, no, not at all. We just had a few plans, that's all..."

After all, the rally and the dance were happening _on the same night._

* * *

 **A/N: That's right, the dance _and_ the rally happening simultaneously! This is one of those changes that was made not from Adam's arrival but simply for the narrative's sake. And with this, the plot now starts moving at full-speed, pulling a lot more action with it. I hope the past few chapters weren't too slow for everyone.  
**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	30. V2: Back By Midnight

Cardin Winchester was not having a great year. Sure, contrary to popular belief in Beacon, CRDL was one of the top first year teams in Beacon, built from sweat and blood just like anyone else there. Unfortunately, the gulf between his squad and the teams of champions and prodigies known as RWAY and JNPR was practically infinite. No one cared about third place, especially when that third place was getting embarrassed and humiliated by the top teams left and right! Getting sap and bees thrown at him by that cheating hack, Jaune, getting his wrist fractured by that faunus lover, Adam, and then the administration just refusing to listen when he told them Jaune was a fraud!

It freakin' sucked! It wasn't his fault that he didn't get the most privileged people in Beacon on his team! Cardin groaned to himself as he got some last-minute homework done in his dorm. How weird was that, anyway? A rare accelerated student, a company heiress, one of the top Signal kids and _whatever_ Adam was all in one team? And then some admin-protected punk, a champion and these two nobodies without a lick of formal schooling all from Mistral? What were even the chances of that?

Cardin wasn't sure if this year could get any stranger with people like them running around.

 _"No, no, no, wrong!"_ He could hear Jaune shouting from the open window. Oh, yeah, another annoying thing about those teams! Jaune and Pyrrha up on _his_ team's roof training or making out or whatever in the middle of the night! And these people wondered why he hated their guts!

That was kind of weird, though: usually Jaune was _way_ too passive around that Pyrrha chick to shout. Cardin leaned towards the window to hear better, even while he paid more attention to his work.

 _"Kick, step, kick, step, body roll is_ not _rocket science!"_ Jaune cried out in frustration.

 _"What kind of crash course has moves this complex?!"_ The second voice was hushed and harsh, but there was no mistaking who it was: Adam Belladonna. Cardin paused.

 _"My crash course! You said you wanted to learn how to dance, didn't you?!"_

What.

 _"Right now, I_ want _is to throw you off of this rooftop! Just... just start it again!"_ Okay, now he had to see what this was all about. Using the same trick he did to catch Jaune lying about his transcripts in the first place, Cardin climbed up onto the ledge and, with an aura-boosted jump, hopped onto the top of the windowpane. From there, just a quick climb and he could get up to the roof and...

See one of the dorkiest, weakest students in Beacon right next to one of the most feared and stoic dancing alongside one another to some kind of techno pop. Whereas Jaune's steps and spins were sharp and smooth, Adam's were... decidedly less so, even if he was keeping up. He suddenly stumbled on a twirl, and Jaune turned to chastise him, right up until he realized why he had tripped.

Cardin stared blankly at the two, hanging onto the edge of the roof mid-climb. Adam and Jaune stared back.

Seconds passed until Adam broke the silence.

"No one will ever believe you."

* * *

 **Back By Midnight**

* * *

The dance was here. With CFVY's mission going on for far longer than expected, running the dance was given up to Weiss and Yang, though, the latter respectfully stepped down—on the day before, no less—claiming she wanted to try and enjoy herself. Of course, this was all just a lie: they needed Yang to have more freedom for their plan to work.

"Timing is crucial here, so let's go over the plan again," Adam spoke from beside the window in his new outfit. He'd looked upon the suits of most of the men getting ready to attend the dance and found them... wanting. So he'd made his own: he stood in a sharply-fitted morning coat with the fanciful red swirls of his normal attire instead trailing down the 'tail' of the suit. His insignia was absent, but, from his black vest and slacks to his crimson dress shirt, he'd kept his color scheme in-tact. Adam fully intended to turn heads at the dance if he were to attend: the more memorable he was, after all, the better for their scheme...

"Since you would stick out like a sore thumb, we're gonna head down to the rally and see what's up!" Yang spoke first. Knowing she wouldn't be at the dance immediately, she'd just stuck with her clubbing outfit she wore while going out on the town.

Adam grimaced. "Have you found anything to actually sneak in with? Even if Ruby acts like a puppy," The aforementioned 'puppy' snickered to herself. "You aren't faunus, and faunus with characteristics that leave them looking human are rare. It draws attention."

"Well, worry not, because we haaave _these!_ " Ruby reached behind her back and pulled out a pair of fake, black wolf ears that faded to red. As Yang plopped on a pair of little blonde bear ears, Adam and Weiss were left staring at both of them in disbelief.

"You're joking," Adam stated flatly, wishing this was true.

"Nope! Look, mine can even wiggle a little!" One of Ruby's ears wobbled and flopped down, controlled loosely by her aura.

"... Ruby, just keep your hood on. Yang, hide yours in your hair better." Weiss ordered them. Unlike Adam, she'd decided simplicity was best: a nice, white knee-length dress with a black mesh, sleeveless top beneath it was her choice of attire.

Adam let out a deep sigh, and just pushed on. "Considering how Cinder is bound to be keeping an eye on us, Weiss and I will remain at the dance. However, after an hour, we'll be using our cover stories to have an excuse to escape: I asked Yang to the dance, but you seemingly didn't show up," He sounded faintly disgruntled that he had to play the part of someone being ditched.

"And _I,_ " Weiss continued, "Have to go and drag Ruby to the dance whether she wants to or not _._ By the way, you _are_ going in a dress." Ruby groaned.

"If you face any trouble at all, or think there is more information to be found, ping one of us from your Scrolls. That being said, _do not engage them_ , all it'll take is one message to Cinder and we could be in jeopardy. This not only should be quick, but must be: if we aren't all together by midnight, that woman will no doubt grow suspicious. Once we return, we'll keep them busy just in case they have any other plans. Any further questions?" Adam looked between the three. "Good. We have three more hours before the dance—and the rally—begins. We have a few minutes to relax, but not much more."

"Speak for yourself, I have to leave _now,_ " Weiss pipped up.

"Oh, yeah, Ruby managed to weasel out of getting a date, but who're you taking?" Yang asked with a smirk.

"Oh, uh, someone you don't know but-I'm-really-busy-bye!" The heiress shot out of the door, leaving the three staring curiously after her.

Yang turned to the other two. "Fifty lien on Jaune."

"Mmm, twenty on a Vacuan exchange student!" Ruby added in.

"Thirty on Penny."

Ruby let out a tiny gasp and grinned. "Penny's going?!"

* * *

Weiss jogged her way back to the dance hall and took a quick look around. No sign of Penny. She let out a quiet sigh and withdrew a Scroll from her dress: simple and white, yet with a mint-green outline around its edge. She hoped that the robotic girl hadn't gotten herself in trouble just as much as she hoped she hadn't managed to scare such a good friend off. She opened the scroll, its last page opened being the contacts list. Weiss didn't exactly know who Penny really knew, but, she'd at least gone through the effort of including hers and Ruby's contact information.

If she could give Penny the Scroll, they wouldn't need to spend so much time apart like this. Her friend wouldn't need to be alone.

All she needed to do was _find_ her.

"Ah, you're here right on time." Headmaster Ozpin stepped up from behind Weiss and handed a clipboard to her. Even if school was over, instincts made it very hard for Weiss to feel comfortable having a Scroll—even if it technically wasn't going to be hers—out in front of faculty. When she began to put it away, however, she noticed Ozpin's eyes immediately dip towards it. He smiled knowingly.

"Find a lost Scroll, Miss Schnee?"

Weiss jolted and sputtered, "I-I, yes, I just... didn't know who it belonged to, is all!"

"Hm... luckily for you, I believe _I_ do."

Trying her hardest not to let her fear show, Weiss forced a smile and responded, "Is that so, sir?" She hadn't expected someone else to lose a Scroll identical to this one!

"Indeed it is, I believe I saw the student drop it somewhere near the library..." Weiss' eyes widened. The headmaster chuckled. "I know you and your team may be quite fond of handling situations on your own, but, do remember that we faculty members _can_ assist you."

"Do you... think you could get this to her?" The heiress asked with hope.

"Safe and sound, Miss Schnee. How ironic would it be, this close to the CCT itself, for someone to find themselves without means of communication with the outside world?" Ozpin held his hand out, and Weiss gratefully placed Penny's new Scroll in it. With a flick of the headmaster's wrist, it seemingly vanished. Smiling at Weiss' surprise, he calmly walked past her. "No one deserves to have their voice unheard," He said.

When Weiss turned to thank him, just like the Scroll, Ozpin, too, had vanished. Blinking away her confusion, Weiss looked down at her clipboard, taking in the many things that still needed to be set up for the dance to go off without a hitch. Though there was still work to do, and though there was still the mission ahead of her, Weiss found it within herself to smile.

This night was going to be just wonderful.

* * *

There was still just one last thing that Adam had to address before he prepared himself for the fight ahead. He knocked upon the door of Team CEMB("Symbol"), the other tightened around Wilt, just in case they had the nerve to try something while no one else was around. Seconds passed before the door opened, revealing the lithe figure of Cinder behind it. In contrast to her usual short, red dress, she'd chosen a sleeveless, long black one that gleamed in the light of the hall. Even so, it was dim compared to the dark, glowing stare of her eyes.

"Oh, Adam?" She purred to him. "It's a little late to be asking a lady to the dance, wouldn't you say?" Adam pointedly ignored her advance and looked beyond her into the room. No one appeared to be there. _Appeared_ was the key word.

"Where is Blake?" He had no time for her charm when she was kneeling to him in his camp, and he had no time for her charm, now. Had he not already known what a snake she was, he might have believed in Cinder when she looked hurt and brought a black-gloved hand to her chest.

"You wound me, Adam. We may have gotten off on the wrong foot, but there's no need to be so angry." She was unfazed by Adam's glare. "But, if you must know, Blake left after class, and we haven't seen her since."

Adam had just turned to leave without another word when Cinder's arm reached out for him. His hand snapped to Wilt's handle, but, her movements were much too slow to be hostile. Curiously, she brought a hand down his sleeve.

"Do tell, did you make this yourself?" Her question, sounding so genuine, managed to catch Adam off-guard. Just as quickly as he found himself surprised, however, he steeled himself for any trickery.

"Yes." Adam shrugged Cinder off both physically and verbally, and tried once more to leave. He couldn't let himself be drawn in by pleasantries, either.

Cinder sighed melodramatically behind him. "It was an attempt at conversation, Adam."

She would continue hounding him on this, Adam realized, either because he was too powerful to ignore, or because of some human pride that wouldn't let someone who once denied her continue to do so without flinching. Trying to dissuade her logically or with threats wouldn't work at all. Adam turned to face Cinder, his emerald eyes boring into hers.

"At lunch, Monday. We can converse all you wish." He took in the gleam in her amber eyes and that slight edge up of her smirk that she tried to keep restrained.

"Just remember, it might be a bit late, but the offer will always be open for you..."

As he strode off, Adam threw a last glance back dismissively waved to her. "I'm afraid I already have a date, tonight." He made sure to get every detail of that confidence expression Cinder always wore etched into his mind, to make it all the better when he crushed that smugness of hers. This night would be the beginning of the end for her.

Now, all he had to do was find Blake...

* * *

Their fake faunus ears proudly attached to their heads, Ruby and Yang slipped off to Beacon's personal garages. Pausing at the gate, Ruby took a last look around the campus. The equinox had long passed: it wasn't particularly late, but the shattered moon stood proud in the sky, casting its beams down to illuminate the bright night. The first few lights had just begun turning on in the small town that made up Beacon Academy.

Yang laid a hand on her shoulder and leaned over, grinning wide. "Don't tell me you're getting second thoughts, now!"

Ruby crossed her arms and huffed, before shouting back: "No! It's just..." She sighed softly and, for the briefest moment, Yang was actually worried the reality of being a Huntress was getting to her. Instead, Ruby let out a bubbly laugh, drunk on anticipation. "We're really doing it, sis! We're gonna go save the world and be heroes!"

"So much for 'normal knees', huh?" Yang teased with a little nudge to her shoulder before softening up. "I don't think I expected anything different of my little sis!" She pulled Ruby into a tight hug. In truth, perhaps the only one who was having second thoughts about this was Yang, herself. It wasn't open, nor was it something that she could even admit to herself; it was a niggling at the back of her mind. The tiny angel on her shoulder telling her to be careful, the brief flash of the memory of snarling Grimm and weeping children, the paradoxical fear of death that drove her adrenaline and desire to press on both.

But, looking down into her sister's innocent eyes, even they were quashed without a fight. Ruby's eternal optimism was contagious.

"Mom would be so proud of you, Rubes..."

"She'd be proud of _us,_ " Ruby corrected her with a kind smile. Giggling openly, Yang gave her dear sister a last squeeze and waved her over to Bumblebee. Though the sidecar was still attached from when Yang dragged Adam and Weiss off to the nightclub and now even painted in the same fiery oranges and yellows as the rest of the motorcycle, Ruby hopped on just behind Yang. The blonde fixed her helmet, smiled happily and threw a knowing glance back at Ruby.

"Ruby..."

With a look far too innocent to be genuine, Ruby poked her head up from behind Yang's shoulder. She brushed her hand through her hair, even having the nerve to have her aura flick one of her ears forward like a tiny little puppy that wasn't doing anything wrong and definitely didn't purposefully forget to wear her—

"Helmet." Grumbling to herself about a myriad of things from it being unfair to 'Huntresses don't wear helmets,' Ruby snatched her personal helmet from where it sat in the sidecar and put it on. "Hey, knock it off, I can't have my little sis getting hurt _before_ our big mission!"

"Yeah, yeah, I know..." Ruby mumbled in defeat before bouncing right back into unbridled excitement just as Bumblebee started up. There wasn't a single ounce of worry or tribulation in her body. "Oooh, this is gonna be great!"

" 'Operation: Douse the Torch' begins... now!"

And with the laughing of two sisters and the roar of their motorcycle, the two were off into the night.

* * *

With a heaviness in her heart, Blake Belladonna admitted to herself that those two had something that she would likely never have again: family. So trapped was she in thoughts and memories, crouched down behind one of the many nondescript vehicles in the garage, that she never noticed the stranger approaching her until a pair of gleaming keys were dangled noisily just in front of her face.

"So, you're following 'em, too, huh?" With a hiss, she reached back to Gambol Shroud and spun around on who was sneaking up on her. "Woah, there!" The teen stepped back with the jangling of metal and held his hands up. His _empty_ hands. The keys were held tight in his golden-haired, slim monkey tail. Blake's eyes widened: a faunus? She looked the stranger over: he was... messy, to say the least. Choppy, blonde hair, an open, white shirt and ratty jeans.

"... Uh, 'you there?" Behind him, the lights of an immaculate, white hatchback rally car flickered on and off. Blake's eyes flicked between him, the keys and the car.

"I don't need your help." She responded immediately.

The man shrugged. "Hey, your loss. I was just wondering if you planned on following them on foot all the way to Vale." He turned around and strolled back to his car with a blase smile. Blake stood there, face paling as she realized she had missed a key part of her plan: a way to follow them, in the first place. By the time he'd gotten in, Blake was in the passenger's seat beside him.

"Name's Sun, by the way," He introduced himself with a wink.

Blake rolled her eyes.

* * *

On a stone wall beside an alleyway on the border of Vale's industrial district, there were three white scratches, the middle longest of them all. They should've been all but invisible to anyone who wasn't looking for it. It certainly didn't help that there were decoys left all about the area, each just slightly different enough so that those who should know what they're looking for could pass it by with ease. Had Adam not told Ruby and Yang just what to look for, even Ruby might've walked by without a glance in its direction. Instead, looking as confident as possible, Ruby strolled right into the alley with a bright smile on her face and her hood up, Yang trailing right behind.

"Helloooo!" Yang called in a sing-song tone to the lone man standing at the door to the warehouse itself. Regal with gray hair and a well-trimmed beard, two things would quickly stick out to anyone who looked upon him: that he wore the threads of at least someone in the middle class... and that he had no discernible faunus traits.

The doorman turned and looked at the two with a curious eye before smiling. "Ah, good evening! Can I help you?"

"Oh, yes! Um, we were wondering, actually, if you've ever read _The Third Crusade?_ " The code was spoken: they were new, and they were allowed to be here. At Ruby's young, cheery voice, the doorman arched an eyebrow. He looked over the two, smile slowly but surely slipping from his face. The two girls fidgeted in place. Ruby let one of her fake ears flop down just barely into view beneath her cloak. The doorman narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

"You need not hide your true self here, young one. You are among friends, now and always. Welcome, ladies." He stepped aside and opened the door. They made it. Trying their hardest not to come off as spooked, the two swiftly stepped inside, waited until the door closed, and let out deep sighs of relief. Ruby tugged her hood down just to avoid drawing anymore attention as they walked through the halls. The rally must have already been packed: even through the stone and brick they could hear the rumbling cheers and shouts of the people within. By the time they'd reached the man who handed them their masks, it felt like they were standing inside a sports arena.

"You know, Adam got all... _weird_ when I asked for a matching mask to be a vigilante with him. I wonder why he was so against me wearing one... I think I look neat!" Ruby wondered out loud as she affixed her mask and made her way down the final hall beside her sister.

Yang stifled a chuckle. "Would you say that he was... _adam_ ant about it?" The two were left in snorts and giggles until they reached the warehouse proper.

Because the sight within wiped the smiles off their faces.

Over two hundred White Fang members stood in the center of the room, packed so tightly that they barely had the ability to turn around. Guards stood above on walkways, assault rifles at the ready. This rally held a small army of fanatics and criminals within it, all unified by the singular desire to lift themselves from shadows. And yet, that was not the most frightening thing to the pair: that belonged to the recruits. They were a splash of color beside a sea of white, formed of people from all walks of life.

Ruby and Yang were lucky to be closer to the back of the group, for, up front, while the soldiers could barely turn, the recruits could barely even move their arms. There was already over one hundred of them here, and more were coming in from behind without end. The noise was almost deafening, now, swelling up as a single man with tan skin and a sharp buzzcut stepped onto the stage in front of a large, black curtain adorned with the bloody White Fang insignia.

He towered above the average man, built like a brick house with plates of white, chitin-like armor across his arms and abdomen. Oddly, he, too, showed no faunus traits. His mask, however, stretched beyond just his face to cover half of his entire head in white bone and red, menacing designs. The curves and ripples of his armor gave a strangely aquatic look to him. There was no doubt that this was the man in charge, especially as he took the lead over the anti-human chants roaring through the crowd.

"Do they hate us this much?" Ruby found herself whimpering under her breath: it was one thing to hear about a terrorist group's strength and goals. It was another to see so many people lining up for the chance to kill humans, gladly cheering for death whether they be from the street or from a cozy office in the upper-class. Even if it wasn't directed entirely at her, just a grazing blow from the intensity of the hatred was enough to hurt the innocent girl. Her breath caught in her throat as someone looked back at her. It was quiet enough for Yang not to hear... but she was among true faunus, now. Even with so much noise, she had to be careful.

"Of course they do," Commented a young woman around Yang's age, her spotted cheetah ears sticking out clear as day. "We wouldn't need to gather like this if those wretched humans would dare let us stand on equal ground!" Oh, thank God, Ruby thought, she had taken her words to mean that the humans hated the faunus and not the other way around.

"Y-yeah, down with those humans!" Ruby tried to cheer with even half the power as the other recruits. She could see the cheetah girl's shoulders shake a little with laughter as she turned back to the stage. The faunus girl suddenly did a double-take back at Ruby and Yang just as the leader raised his hand for attention. The constant roar of the crowd became little more than a dull murmur, and even that sound came only from the new recruits.

"Thank you for joining us!" He called, his gruff, powerful voice rumbling even when echoing off the walls. "For those of you just joining us today, allow me to introduce myself: I am Captain Almond, leader of the Vale branch. Allow me to also introduce you to a new comrade of ours. He may seem unorthodox, but you can trust my word, he is the key to obtaining everything that we have fought for, for so long!"

Even the recruits fell silent now in disbelief. The light, casual footsteps of the man stepping out from behind the curtain rang out all the better of it.

"Tonight, the war between the Torches and the White Fang is over. Tonight, all those in the shadows are united under a single banner!"

"Thank you, thank you! Please, hold your applause!" Like a switch had been flipped, shouts of rage and dismay were thrown at the speaker. The _human_ speaker. "Since my new pal here was so kind to introduce himself, why don't I do the same? To all you people not paying attention to the news, _I_ am Roman Torchwick, leader of the Torches!"

"And I'm about to be your new best friend."

* * *

 **A/N: I am beginning to feel just a tad bit reliant on the character reveal twist/cliffhanger. Does it really count when the cliffhanger isn't a twist at all because of the original series? No matter.**

 **Fun fact: Sun's car is a Renault F5 Turbo.**


	31. V2: Dousing The Torch

**Dousing The Torch**

* * *

Penny wasn't coming. She'd officially scared her off.

Weiss sighed to herself as she watched the dance play itself out. Soft, whimsical ballroom music played in the dance hall draped in hues of purple and blue from the lights she'd hung up. Confetti and streamers from the opening laid scattered and forgotten on the ground as students of all four years who could make it laughed and danced freely. The Grimm didn't exist here, only cajolement and merriment. Even the teachers managed to have some fun, though, from how Professor Goodwitch casually rejected Port's offer to dance, not _everyone_ could so easily get into it.

She was currently one of them. Weiss would never admit openly that Ruby was right and she was wrong about something like this... but Ruby was absolutely correct: the dance felt so empty without having her whole team, there, especially since one of her best friends was nowhere to be found. She was left greeting each and every person who came in, each and every person probably having a way better time than she was.

It certainly didn't help that her date was too busy building his strength up to speak to her at the punch bowl rather than actually doing so.

"Leave it to you to make a dance feel like a funeral," Adam commented slyly from beside Weiss as she took a seat to rest.

"Now's not the time, Adam..."

"Are you certain? You don't exactly seem to be... busy." He held a cup out to her.

Rolling her eyes, Weiss did not snatch the drink only out of fear of spilling it on herself. "Just because _your_ date ditched you doesn't mean mine has, too."

Adam shot a glare down at her fierce enough to almost have Weiss think it was genuine and snorted. "She will arrive when she wishes to. Do tell, what did you do to scare your date off, then?"

" _Apparently,_ saying yes in the first place."

"And what stops you from just going to them, instead?" His eyes watched hers closely, waiting for Weiss to inadvertently glance off someplace else and give him a clue to just who it was.

Weiss mulled it over in her mind and steeled herself. "You know what? You're right! I'll just..." She turned to face where the punch was, and suddenly her face fell. Confused, the heiress looked around until she found Jaune hurriedly making his way up the stairs to the balcony, following a much more languid, almost depressed-looking Pyrrha. Weiss flinched. "He's busy."

Adam's eyes followed hers to the stairs. "... Jaune?"

"Don't judge!"

"He really was the only one who asked, wasn't he?" The brief flash of hurt in Weiss' eyes had Adam regretting that immediate response. Funny, how there was once a time when that was what he sought out. "My apologies—"

"No, no, I... I know what you mean. It makes sense: I'm the heiress to an entire company, part of one of the best teams in Beacon, as active as can be outside of school,"

"More than a little icy towards newcomers," Adam added with a teasing smirk.

"Yes, yes, that too. It doesn't make for a particularly _approachable_ girl, does it? He was the only one who actually looked through all that." Weiss let out a soft sigh, watching a team of students laughing and chattering as one of them tried to tell some grand story. The sight of Emerald and Mercury watching them from the second floor didn't escape her.

"It sounds a lot like that Nikos girl."

Weiss shuddered. "No, at least I can have people _talk_ to me without flinching... most of the time." The two fell into an uncomfortable silence for a few moments. Adam checked his Scroll: twenty minutes until their departure.

"Our dates ran off and our close friends are nowhere to be found," And I'm out thirty lien, Adam thought to himself as he offered a hand to Weiss. "But that doesn't mean we can't have fun, ourselves, right?"

With a warm smile, Weiss took Adam's hand.

* * *

"What's a human doing here?!" A recruit girl with deer antlers shouted at the stage. Several demands for answers were flung up at their leader and Torchwick both until the man relented and held up his hand.

"I'm glad you asked, Deery! I won't lie to you, humans are the _worst._ Case in point," Torchwick tipped his white bowler hat to the crowds. "We lie, we cheat, we steal, and we have this nasty little tendency to live through whatever gets thrown at us, so I can understand why you might want to see us all locked away, or better yet, _killed._ " As Ruby and Yang looked curiously between one another, Torchwick began pacing to and fro across the stage as if he wasn't one wrong word away from being physically torn to pieces with his cigar trailing ash in one hand and his trusty cane in the other. It was just as impressive as it was unnerving.

Ruby took a sharp breath and nudged Yang's side. "Look! It's that girl!" She whispered in a hush tone and pointed off behind Torchwick. In the chaos of his entrance, the short stranger with hair the colors of Neapolitan ice cream had managed to slip on-stage to watch the crowd without even a single glance being thrown her way. Just like her partner, the girl had the nerve to smile at a time like this. Yang nodded and placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder: she'd be sure to keep an eye on that one...

"But! Before those claws come out, how about I let you all in on a little human secret?" The gangster leaned forward on his cane with a conspirator's smirk. "The only thing we humans love more than lording our power over others is seeing those without it tear each other apart. And how about that power, huh? The governments, the military, even the schools, all are run by a bunch of humans who want to see you and I thrown away like trash. They're the ones in charge, they're pulling the strings, _they're_ our enemy!" He waved his cane around in time with his words, controlling the crowd's reactions like a conductor with his baton until they were cheering with him, not against him.

"They're pests that need to be dealt with! Fortunately, I'm the best exterminator around..." Torchwick took a drag from his cigar and turned to the curtain. "Oh, uh, no offense to any rodents in the room." He snapped his fingers, and the curtain dropped. Standing there, bristling with a myriad of cannons and adorned with the White Fang's insignia was the dreaded Atlesian Paladin. But, it was not just any Paladin: the smooth armor, insectoid head covering its torso with four, gleaming slits for eyes and plates shielding its joints from damage marked it as a full production type.

The crowd exploded into cheers, gasps and shouts of awe. Even Ruby let out a strangled noise caught between a whimper and a squee of adoration at seeing this metal beast this close before it was released even in Atlas. So caught up in the excitement surrounding the machine, Ruby did not even notice the dirty looks the faunus ahead of her kept throwing her way.

"Ooooh my gosh, the rumors were right! Are those seventy-six millimeter dual Dust cannons? It even has anti-air, rotating, independent ones mounted on the top!"

"Yeah, yeah, but where did he _get_ that thing?!" Yang tried her hardest to bring Ruby back to reality.

"As some of you may have heard, this here is Atlas' brand-new defense against all the scary things in the world," Torchwick had to stifle a chuckle. As if this could do anything. "But, thanks to a partner of mine, we managed to snag a few before they... ah, 'hit the shelves.' Now, if you think we're going to do better apart, go ahead, fight the Torches. Hell, you can start with me!" He dropped the end of his cigar and crushed it under his foot. "But if you're really ready to crush Vale... this is the arsenal I can provide you." The gangster looked up to the crowd with a stoic stare.

"Any questions?" The only hands raised were fists pumped into the air from White Fang and recruit alike. In a frightening display, not a single one of the hundreds of White Fang and potential White Fang members there dissented, from the crowds to the guards above. Once more, all that was heard was a din.

"The Torches will be providing us with equipment in the southeast operation! All recruits, step up and choose your path!" Captain Almond did not even bother trying to calm the crowd, instead shouting over it altogether. Ruby and Yang were nearly bowled over by the wave of marching men and women, and luckily just before the cheetah faunus could start asking questions.

"We need to get out of here ASAP!" Yang harshly whispered to Ruby, but, there was nowhere to go without sticking out like a sore thumb. The youngest's eyes searched the windows for the least protected.

"I could always use my Semblance and get to the windows, or..." Ruby was cut off by Yang nudging her and staring up at the stage. A pair of eyes, one pink, one brown, were staring dead at them. The mysterious ice-cream colored girl took her sweet time in strolling up towards Roman, eyes on them the entire time.

"Rubes, we need a plan—"

"That girl in the cloak and the blonde! They're spies from the Academy!" The cheetah girl shouted just over the crowd just as Roman pointed his cane over at them. The two could feel hundreds of eyes immediately scanning the area, and more and more locking onto them. They would never stand a chance even against that many recruits, let alone fully trained soldiers.

"Don't let them get away!" Torchwick shouted, the recruits around her stepped back, his cane's tip flipped open to form crosshairs, Ruby reached for her weapons, gunfire rang out—

And the lights suddenly shut off, casting the warehouse into darkness so quickly that even the faunus needed to adjust.

"Follow me!" A hushed, yet faintly familiar voice called to Yang amidst the roar of confused questions and rage. Her eyes briefly caught black hair in the moonlight as she was abruptly dragged along and up onto the second floor's walkway in a single leap.

Ruby let out a squeak and started yanking her hand back as a second person started pulling her along. "Wait, hey, hold on, I can handle myself!" She sprung after Yang and the mystery girl towards another window, but a loud whirring drew her attention.

 **"I guess if you want something done, you gotta do it yourself!"** Torchwick bemoaned played over a speaker as, in the darkness, four red lights came to life. Thin lasers leaped to life, their beams scanning across the crowd and searching for a target, barely illuminating the shifting horde in crimson below just as it did the silhouette of the production-grade Paladin on the stage.

"Woaaah, it's like a laser show at a concert!" Ruby gushed to herself.

Countless lasers focused on her.

"Time to move!" A man shoved her right out through the window as the first shell blew out the wall.

* * *

Yang and her apparent savior crashed through the window and came rolling to a halt just outside. The blonde whipped her head around to see who this was and if it was someone who needed a good punch to the head: the White Fang mask had her deploying Ember Celica already, but the black hair, the white and black outfit, the cat ears...

"Oh, it's just you, Blake. Wait, Blake?! What are you doing here?!" Adam was going to kill them! The whole point was so that Blake didn't get offed by her evil team!

"Now is not the time for questions!" Right on cue, Ruby went flying out of another warehouse window, followed by Sun getting unceremoniously blasted out by a shockwave within. The hornet's nest that was the White Fang rally was buzzing, now, weapons being cocked, voices shouting and the rumbling of over six hundred feet making it sound like they were about to have an entire war's worth of soldiers on top of them any second, now.

"Okay, whatever! We need to get back to Beacon freakin'... five minutes ago! Come on, we'll get on my motorcycle!"

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks for asking!" Sun called after the two girls making a break for the bike. Ruby grumbled to herself and rubbed her head before finding herself being pulled along yet again towards a car. "You're coming with me, we'll meet up with them! Call the Ice Queen and the scary dude with the horns!"

The roof of the warehouse exploded as the Paladin leaped clean out of the building and slammed down onto the street hard enough to shatter the asphalt and stone beneath it. Sun and Ruby held their breath as they threw themselves inside the hatchback and ducked: they were out in the open and, while a car was definitely faster without wasting every ounce of aura they had, it was neither maneuverable or strong enough to take on a Paladin.

Torchwick looked at his right screen: an empty car with its lights on. Well, now he knew how some of those Beacon brats managed to get here in the first place. He loaded his cannon and looked left: on a motorcycle already pulling off was some blonde teen he'd never seen in his life and—oh _hello?_ Was that the kitty-kat Cinder wanted to keep an eye on? Didn't need to ask him twice! The Paladin tore off after them, each step sending the entire street trembling.

Sun and Ruby slowly brought their heads up as Torchwick left, both panting from the stress of it all. Ruby whipped out her Scroll as Sun took off in pursuit: they needed help _now._

* * *

"So! Any smart plans?!" Yang screamed over her shoulder at Blake behind her, the wind whipping past them as they shot through the industrial district and its old, drab buildings on Bumblebee. The streets here were empty with only a few parked cars left on the streets, and thank goodness for that, because Torchwick barreled through it without abandon, knocking cars into buildings and smashing against windows. Car alarms went off and the distant sound of workers in an uproar picked up in their wake.

"The streets here are cramped! Try to lose him!" Blake called back, hoping the Paladin didn't have some kind of hyper-sensitive microphones or anything. Yang waited until the last possible second, then whipped Bumblebee right around a corner, tires screeching and a dangerous amount of speed lost in exchange for the surprise. Just as the Paladin screeched to a halt at the end of the street, Yang turned left, and was gone from Torchwick's sight. Enraged, Torchwick swung the Paladin's gun into the building beside it, sending rubble pouring down across the machine without even making a scratch.

Huh, that was weird, Torchwick thought as the downpour of brick and stone ended, yet he still heard the occasional _clank_ or _crack_ of something striking the Paladin. The lumbering machine turned itself to find that white hatchback driving towards it at full speed, Ruby leaning out of the passenger window and firing away with Crescent Rose. To her dismay, it didn't look like a single shot was doing any damage.

"Uh, hey, crazy crime guy!"

"It's Sun!"

"Shooting it isn't working, what do we do?!" The Paladin suddenly whirled its entire upper body around and folded one of its guns out to form an arm headed straight for them.

"DUCK!" Sun and Ruby screamed and dropped as low as they could without crashing the car into the nearest building. The sound of metal tearing filled the air for a split second before it was replaced with roaring wind. The two poked their heads up to find that the swipe had crushed the entire top half of the car, sending its top careening off into the distance, but luckily leaving them untouched.

The blonde monkey faunus let out a maniacal, nervous laugh as he looked behind him to see the Paladin storming right after them, now, instead. "Well, I always wanted a convertible!" He shouted into the wind as Ruby, trembling, pulled herself back up into the passenger's seat. Practically born a sniper, Ruby immediately noticed the flashes of yellow and orange each time they passed a building: at least Yang and Blake were still nearby.

Yang scowled at seeing her little sister get hurt, but, as they shot past a club and finally began to see more and more people wandering the sidewalks for the nightlife, Blake was noticing something different, namely, "Why isn't he shooting?"

The blond threw a glance over her shoulder for her to continue, but focused much more on avoiding the first signs of traffic, swerving around cars before speeding up much further ahead. "I dunno, ammo?"

"He fired at Sun, before! I think... I think he might be avoiding the civilians! The freeway! If we get on there he'll have no choice but to retreat!" Blake sounded a mix of surprised and dismayed: surprised that someone like Torchwick would seemingly care about the people of Vale. Dismayed that such an act made him ten times more compassionate than the White Fang she left. Yang nodded and accelerated, swinging left around a turn up ahead. For barely a second, Ruby saw Yang shoot by across from her, waving her arm for them to follow.

"Sun, left!" With surprising skill for someone the same age as Yang, Sun sent the topless rally car drifting around onto the same street as Yang and Blake and punched the gas, quickly catching up to them. Already, they could see the gleaming, blue holographic railings of Vale's freeway system. Well over five roads twisting, turning and intertwining with each other like blood vessels yet never managing to intersect. Just as Sun and Ruby pulled onto the ramp ahead of Yang and Blake, blur of white and black suddenly dropped onto the street between them, sending a plume of dust into the air, a quake through the streets and civilians scattering into buildings.

Blake finally reached for her weapon, Gambol Shroud: seemingly just a large, black blade still in its sheath with a pistol for a hilt. She wasn't worried and, from how Yang pushed Bumblebee even closer to its limit, neither was her new partner. The motorcycle was just thin enough to simply dart between the Paladin's legs, and as it passed, Blake grabbed Gambol Shroud, aimed up, and fired half the clip at the joint of its leg and pelvis.

Orange sparks and flashes of light deflected the bullets on impact. Blake's eyes widened, and she remained still even as the Paladin once more twisted its entire upper body around to make—and miss—a swing at Bumblebee.

"It... that _thing_ has aura!" She managed to force out as they, too, pulled onto the freeway and into safety.

"What?" Yang didn't have to shout at the top of her lungs now that they could slow down and cruise over beside Sun and Ruby, the latter of which was just crumpled in her seat still from the near-death experience, false faunus ears flat against her head.

"When I fired at it, I saw flashes of light and no shots connected: how can a _machine_ have aura?" Blake hissed.

"It doesn't!" Ruby chimed in. "It _actually_ has a revolutionary new aura projecting system! It's so advanced, it can amplify and spread the aura of the pilot as an extra defensive layer if it's piloted by someone with enough control. But... I heard it was only a prototype! Even more than the Paladin itself!" She'd been watching the CCT network for a long time on info for the Paladin.

"He must've been using a demonstration model... We need to get back to Beacon and tell someone!" Blake was surprised to find Ruby and Yang suddenly quiet. She narrowed her eyes. "We... _are_ going to tell someone, right?"

* * *

Torchwick had the sense of humor to laugh at himself as the solution to his problems sat labeled bright enough to stand out among the other buttons and switches: he'd accidentally flipped the safety back on! What a rookie mistake...

* * *

Just as Ruby opened her mouth to speak, she and every other driver on the freeway saw it at once: the colossal Paladin soaring through the air. Some wondered if it was another showing by Atlas, some were astounded by the alien machine altogether, others were ambivalent, but Ruby's mouth turned dry: there was no way Torchwick could chase them safely on the freeway.

He had no intention to do so safely, in the first place.

The girls looked back just as the Paladin came falling from the skies and right atop another car, crushing it in a ball of flame that lit the road in orange. Blake closed her eyes and turned her back to the sudden death. The sisters, so used to only seeing Grimm perish, stared in shock.

"Hey! Girls! Come _on,_ wake up!" Sun shouted to them as the Paladin took off towards them and the street became a frenzy: people were desperately trying to escape the madness ahead, damn the consequences and whoever was in their way. The monstrosity was already chasing them, sending cars flying through the railings and plummeting below with every kick of its foot. While the first car was not so lucky, automobiles of this day and age in Vale often were meant to be able to take a light Grimm attack with no casualties. Those civilians stood a chance. But the one Torchwick landed on...

A loud honk from Sun's car snapped Yang and Ruby out of their daze just in time to swerve out of the way of a line of heavy Dust cannon fire that tore holes into the road beneath them.

"How are we going to get to Beacon with this thing chasing us!" Blake called as a shell screamed overhead and detonated in the back of a truck, sending it skidding along the road until it tipped over the side. Once again, Yang was silent. Ruby had already come to the same decision Yang was, however, shakily standing up in the car seat and deploying Crescent Rose into its full scythe form. She smirked, proud of her little sister.

"We aren't going to Beacon."

"What?! We don't stand a chance against—"

"And neither do all of these people! Torchwick might not care, but we do!" Yang hissed as a shell crashed too close for comfort, sending shards of rock and even the steel reinforcement scattering across her aura like shrapnel. "We're gonna put an end to this!" She punched the gas, banked along a long bend in the highway and turned to fire a trio of explosive shots that splashed against the Paladin's head. It showed signs of stumbling and, when the smoke cleared, there was a clear black mark across the mask. The aura coverage wasn't perfect.

Not far from this, Ruby noticed it and grinned. That meant they could win, and they needed to! Torchwick had to be stopped no matter what!

* * *

Soft, cheery classical mixed in with hopeful chatter and even more hopeful flirting in Beacon's dance hall. The mood was light, airy and carefree and the room showed it from the balloons attached to anything those students could get their hands on to the soft purple and blue lighting almost specifically meant to calm. For many of those students, it was the happiest night of their lives.

Cinder Fall would agree with this notion, albeit for... decidedly different reasons. Watching the students turn from near the punch bowl, she caught the eye of her two loyal subjects and partners standing on the second floor, above. Mercury nodded: Adam and Weiss had left. Now, there was no one left to worry about but the unfortunate soul who would be the catalyst for their own plan.

A student tripped on a chair he swore was never there in the first place, splashing his own sugary drink all over Cinder. She glared briefly in disgust and anger, but, by the time the boy picked himself up and pleaded with her not to be mad, the emotion had vanished. It was replaced by a soft, charming smile. "Oh, no, it's nothing, I understand. I had a second dress just for that occasion." Cinder laid a black-gloved hand on the student's shoulder, and he looked like even that simple conversation had made his night.

Even with the front of her dress wet, Cinder sauntered out of the dance hall. She had her alibi. All she had to do was go to the dorms in case anyone was watching, and then, the CCT.

It was the beginning of the end for Ozpin and his puppets.

This night was going to be _wonderful..._

* * *

 **A/N: And here we go, the second big fight scene of the fic begins: Torchwick vs RWBAYS/RAYBWS! Seriously, did anyone ever notice just how many people Torchwick probably murdered in cold blood just to _chase_ RWBY?  
**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	32. V2: Fall of a Paladin

**Fall of a Paladin  
**

* * *

The freeway straightened out once again, and traffic had begun to lessen. With fewer obstacles, Torchwick was on them faster than ever, targeting lasers springing to life across his production-grade Paladin and leaving gleaming red dots across both Bumblebee and the topless rally car Sun was driving. They had a long time until Beacon. That was a long time to get rid of Torchwick before he could do anymore damage!

"I'll pull back and you hop on the machine!" Yang declared as she dropped Bumblebee back from an explosive round and fired another burst, this one only striking the Paladin's aura. Flashes of orange came from Ruby's sniper fire being deflected off of its joints and vital sensors. "If it's Torchwick's aura, we take that out and it might daze him enough to finish the fight!"

Blake closed her eyes and nodded, focusing as much of her aura around the three as she could. Yang suddenly slammed the brakes and dropped them back, waiting for Blake to jump. She was just about to call to her when the Paladin accelerated, brought back its leg and kicked with enough force and speed to easily destroy their bike, if not it and its riders. Cursing under her breath, the blondie tried to desperately turn, only for her and the bike to get suddenly thrown to one side and to safety.

Yang glanced to her side to catch what threw them like that, and her eyes widened: she saw... herself? Bumblebee silently running beside them, her own eyes focused on the road ahead, Blake's closed in focus. She wondered if this was what a near-death experience looked like. 'Trippy' came to mind.

A gunshot rang out behind her at the same time the foot slammed into the back of her mirror image and turned it into a shadowy, black mist. A black katana lodged itself in the Paladin's leg, a ribbon trailing back to the sheath in Blake's hand. When the Paladin's kick reached its peak, she was yanked off and sent flying into the air, holding on tight until the machine's leg swung back and brought Blake spinning down towards it. Her blade ripped itself free and spun around her in a whirlwind of death until she landed just atop it and caught her weapon.

 **"Hey, get your paws off my suit! I just polished it!"** Torchwick shouted and was forced to slow down while he tried to shake Blake off. The faunus girl refused to yield, opening up with her pistol on the Paladin searching for another crack in its aura shield. The Paladin might've been drifting further back, but Yang knew that it was just as threatening, if not more so, from afar than up close. Distance gave it a better chance at using those long-range cannons it had.

Seeing Ruby appraising the battle from afar and loading another clip, Yang dropped back once more just in case Blake needed to get out. Luckily, they had a sniper of their own!

* * *

"Sorry about your car!" With a spin and flourish of her scythe, Ruby slammed the blade into the trunk of the car to form a makeshift monopod for her sniper rifle. Staring through her scope, she could see Yang and Blake both firing upon the Paladin, creating flickers of orange aura shielding it on every strike. When Ruby looked closer, however, she noticed that each time it would flicker on impact, only a small disc with very distinct edges would spring up. Her trained eye spotted the culprits: tiny nodes so small and well-hidden that even Yang and Blake couldn't make them out were projecting the aura. Ruby grinned: if she could slip bullets into those...

"Who said it was mine!" Sun's jovial shout knocked Ruby from her thoughts. She snapped her head back to look at him.

"You _stole_ it?!"

"Well, yeah! How else were we supposed to follow you?" He didn't seem to understand that this was wrong or illegal at all, leaving Ruby completely dumbfounded.

"We're supposed to stop the criminals, not _be_ the criminals!"

"Hey, being a criminal's the only way we were gonna get out of there, too!" Sun shrugged.

"Nope! I could've just taken Yang's sidecar, instead of being a thief, Mister..." As another explosion sounded off behind them, Ruby realized she'd forgotten the other teen's name. "St-Stealy McThieferson!"

"You mean that thing right there?" A flaming mass of orange and yellow metal formerly known as Bumblebee's sidecar tumbled through the air above the two and off the railing. Even this far away and this fast, they could hear the string of curses Yang was belting out at Torchwick. "How'd that have worked out for you? In fact, shouldn't you be paying attention to other things," Sun leaned back as they passed more fleeing cars and shouted in a panic: **"Like that car!"**

Ruby turned back around just in time to see the Paladin spinning its upper body and throwing a car at blistering speeds end over end. Blake was sent flying off of it, saved only by throwing her sword into the pillar of another freeway, swinging herself around it and landing back onto Bumblebee. Rose petals drifted down the street as the next two seconds for Ruby stretched out into eternity: Ruby tore her scythe out, jumped and sliced the incoming car clean in half. The two halves barely even had time to separate before a gunshot sent Ruby flying between them. Her eyes darted between the halves: only the driver, currently screaming his head off, was inside. Her hand moved faster than the eye could catch, slicing off his seatbelt with his aura and snatching him free.

In a rush of red, the driver was plucked from the deathtrap that was now his car and was left safe and sound on the very side of the road. Ruby landed daintily back in the passenger's seat before her rose petals even had time to touch the ground around the civilian.

The two halves of the car landed as masses of metal and flame on each side of them.

"Woah! Wasn't there someone in there?!" Sun shouted over the din. A rapidly-growing distance away, the driver stumbled to his feet just as a fiery motorcycle and a massive, metal monstrosity stronger than any Grimm he'd seen flew by in a blur of color and a gust of wind.

Ruby grinned. "Don't worry, I got him."

"Great! Quick, get behind the wheel, I've got a plan!"

"Wait wait wait, I don't know how to drive!" Her voice grew more high-pitched and panicked as Sun casually ignored her protests and flipped himself over the driver's seat to stand at the back. Ruby scrambled over to the wheel, looked around and just slammed her foot on the gas pedal, desperately trying to keep the car straight and avoid the few vehicles left on the road in jerky turns. "Aaaah, I knew I should've gone with my sis!" Ruby cried.

* * *

The original plan was simple: take an airship to the industrial district, pick up Yang and Ruby, then return. If anyone asked, they could claim that one or both were busy off at Junior's club rather than at the dance. Of course, plans never survive contact with the enemy, and from Ruby's call, they'd more than just contact.

Which was why, high above the city of Vale, Weiss and Adam stood on the open-air deck of the airship, watching the countless lights of the massive metropolis beneath them. As Adam scanned the streets beneath them for any signs of where the other half of their team was, Weiss shivered in the cold air beside him and sighed. The heiress glanced to Adam, then to the streets, then back to Adam.

"You know, Adam, a real gentleman would offer his coat to a freezing lady." Expecting some snide or snarky comment, Weiss was actually surprised when Adam obliged, holding out his morning coat even as his eyes were still focused on the roads below. He waved it impatiently when she didn't grab it, apparently far too focused on the bout to come to make one of his usual snipes at her.

When Weiss slipped the black coat on and sighed happily from the warmth, however, Adam curiously glanced over at her. "It will be interesting to see what your explanation to Yang is later for having appeared in _my_ clothes..." He said with a smirk. Adam let out a short chuckle when it just ended up flung right back into his face.

The distant sound of an explosion cut his laughter short. Weiss leaned over the railing and Adam tore the coat from his face to see a brief burst of orange on one of the freeways so far beneath below.

Then another. Then _many._ Soon, prismatic splashes of light came to life all across a single road lit up in blue from its holographic railings.

Adam narrowed his eyes, threw on his coat, snatched up his sheathed blade and planted a foot onto the dock's railings. Weiss hopped up beside him and drew her rapier. It was a long way down.

Weiss let out a nervous laugh. "Do you think this is what Headmaster Ozpin was thinking when he wanted us to make our landing strategies?"

They jumped.

* * *

Sun reached into his soul, brought his hands together, and focused. Even with the frantic swerving of the surface beneath him, his thoughts could not be broken. With two flashes of brilliant sunlight, two clones of gold leaped and spun away from him, jumping from car to car towards the machine until they slammed into its arm in unison and detonated in bursts of flame. Torchwick found his machine thrown off towards one side, balance failing it, but not enough to completely throw it aside.

That last nudge came from Yang, who, with a roar of fury, drove Bumblebee from the other side of the road towards the Paladin's leg and slammed her fist into it. Her aura flared from the strain of such a fierce impact, but the Paladin finally came crashing down in a rolling ball of steel. Every slam and bounce against the freeway cracked the road until it went tumbling off the side and onto another road below, nearly shattering it on impact.

When the dust cleared, it laid there, completely still. Yang brought Bumblebee to a halt at the holographic wall, and through some miracle—and plenty of shouting from Sun—Ruby managed to brake before flying off.

"Well! That was a thing!" Her arm was still rattling from the shock.

"W-we should _p-p-probably_ get b-back to Beacon be-before the cops show up..." Ruby, latched onto the steering wheel for dear life, was able to force out through her trembling.

* * *

Torchwick slammed his fist against the console. So much for 'defending against the scary things in the world,' this hunk of metal couldn't defend against a bunch of schoolkids! A sharp ringing brought his attention to a radar screen: two aura signatures were coming in at high speeds from above them. Seething, Torchwick searched for options.

Fortunately, the Paladin had a multitude of them.

* * *

When Adam and Weiss saw what looked like the giant robot—little more than a speck at their height without their aura-enhanced senses—fly off onto one of Vale's highways with flashes of gold, they momentarily believed their dramatic entrance would be for nothing. The first flashes of tracer rounds flying up towards them dissuaded the two of that thought. Just barely seeing their target get up once again, their sight quickly became obscured by a wave of artillery and flak coming from the machine's top guns.

Black glyphs almost invisible in the night formed around the two, pulling the two out of harm's way time and again and slowing their descent for the inevitable impact. Any shell that had the misfortune to get too close was sliced or struck from the skies by Adam's blade, each one bringing a brighter and brighter glow to his hair and soul.

In only a couple seconds, they were close enough to start making out the details of the Paladin and their friends.

They could also see them try to escape as countless missiles flew from the battlesuit too fast to dodge.

* * *

To their credit, the four tried and succeeded at shooting a couple of the high-speed missiles, but, without guidance or tracking, they were barely slower than bullets, and slammed into the bridge hard enough to turn their world into burning light and thunderous crashes. The crumbling of their highway, cries of their allies and honking of horns served as the backdrop to their tumble towards the earth. Flashes of white caught their eyes, a shrill clash of steel against steel rang out that turned all in sight an all-encompassing red, familiar voices shouted out, blackening rose petals swept into view, ice rushed up to meet them, and then all was black.

Yang and Blake were the first to rise. Bleary from their brief loss of consciousness, they stumbled up to their feet to find that they weren't even on the road any longer, but on the stone and gravel beneath it where pillars stretched up to the highways above like they were holding the skies. Ruby and Sun jumped to their feet next, turning to find Bumblebee and the stolen, utterly-totaled car frozen in a massive ramp of ice they must have slid down. Above, wilting rose petals drifted down from the freeway, where it looked like an entire chunk was surgically removed without even a sign of rubble.

"How you dolts managed to get in this much trouble astounds me," Weiss huffed, panting as Adam landed beside her and sheathed his blade. Ahead of them, the Paladin lay inactive once more as a faint, orange pulse twisted and warped around it before fading completely: Torchwick's aura had been broken by the fall, giving them a moment to recuperate and regroup. As it began to twitch and shift, however, it appeared that 'a moment' was all that they were going to get.

Adam turned to face the machine as his team and Blake prepared for combat. "Blake, other boy, return to Beacon," He ordered.

Sun, who was busy staring at the machine that, after all that, was still getting ready for more, just nodded and gave the group a pair of thumbs-ups. "Hey, man, whatever you say!"

Blake, however, was much less happy about the situation. "I can still fight, Adam!" She called to him.

"No. You will be safer there. Your team must already be worried about you." He did not even turn to face her. The Paladin began to force itself upright.

"I'm staying—" Adam glared at Blake, and her words died on her tongue. Seeing him without his mask this often was strange enough, and Blake knew why he had once worn it so much: his eyes were very easy to read, especially to those close to him. Blake saw no overprotective nature, no simple desire to see her safe. Adam was _afraid_ for her. It was rare. It was frightening. What did he know that she did not? Silently, she took a few steps back into the shadows, then sprinted off into the night. Sun followed suit.

All that left was RWAY.

* * *

Metal groaned in protest as the Paladin stood tall. **"Leave it to you four brats to keep getting in the way! Red, Ice Queen, the traitor—I want that hat back, by the way—and..."** Torchwick paused when he came to Yang. **"I'm sorry, who are you?"**

"The one who's gonna kick your ass!"

Torchwick snorted. **"Classy. But, I've heard worse last words!"** Pistons locked down in the Paladin's feet, giving it extra grip on the ground before it unleashed a torrent of high-explosive shells at team RWAY, forcing them to scatter. Split up to their partners, the four circled the machine and opened up with bullets and Dust alike, each one cutting gauges in the Paladin's heavy armor, but being unable to pierce through. Chuckling to himself, he turned to face Weiss and Adam, aimed his guns, and suddenly threw the Paladin backwards into Ruby and Yang, bowling them over and sending the two tumbling across the ground.

"Ruby!" Weiss cried out and, with a flick of Myrtenaster's Dust cylinder, sent a jet of flame at the machine's head while Adam ducked under the flames and darted towards the Paladin's leg. In a show of speed not befitting a robot of its size, the Paladin leaped off to one side and returned fire with deadly accuracy, forcing Adam to draw his blade just to block and slash shells from the air until one landed home and blew him backwards.

"We can't let him see us! Freezerburn! Red Bull!" Ruby called before gathering her aura and spun her scythe around her. Weiss struck her rapier to the ground and created a vast sheen of ice beneath them all as Yang jumped off one of the many structural pillars. Torchwick grunted and prepared to fire his anti-air cannons at the blonde above when the Paladin shook and alarms blared. Skating on the ice, Ruby and Adam both shot by the Paladin's legs in blurs of black and red time and time again, slashing thin cuts into its armor that were already building up and growing deeper. Ruby came to a stop twirling just on the edge of the ice and right in Torchwick's sights.

But the distraction did its job: Yang slammed back down like a fiery comet, not just shattering the ice but heating it straight to steam that filled the air and obscured Torchwick's sight. All he had now were the Paladin's lasers, once more flickering to life and scanning across the vast space for any sign of the vigilantes.

Suddenly, it was very quiet. His radar only caught the Bullheads and cars of the police warily closing in from afar. He could see brief shadows rushing through the steam, and his lasers could even catch glimpses of their forms, but the mist scattered them too much to target. Torchwick grew impatient and let loose at any shadow he could see, shattering stone and pillar alike in explosions of flame and force. An infuriated grunt sounded out followed by a flicker of gold. Got one!

The Paladin swiveled its guns around to finish her off, only for a rush of red to block his sights. Ruby swung her scythe with all her might at its faceplate and bounced right off, the ringing of steel on steel echoing through her ears and hands both. All she'd earned for her troubles was a small gash in her foe's armor. If they needed to weaken it more...

"Frostbite!" She spun Crescent Rose and fired beneath her just in time to avoid the Paladin's shoulder rush at the sound. Torchwick slammed his foot down and turned his guns towards the sky, only to find countless white glyphs forming around him in the now-receding mist and the Paladin's legs locking up from ice. Missiles locked onto the perpetrator: Weiss, standing their with her rapier raised and a pleased little smirk on her face.

The hilt of a chokuto slammed into one of the four main eyes of the Paladin. Adam followed up at insane speeds, snatching his blade out of the sky and slashing across a second eye before vanishing in a rush of black and red. Kicking off of the glyphs, he appeared at erratic angles, cutting away sensors and cameras as he flew by. The Paladin swung the main guns of its arm around and prepared to fire, only for one to be frozen over by a well-placed bolt of Dust from Weiss. The dark blur swept by once more, blade shattering the ice and damaging the device.

What was once one bolt of ice became several. If it tried to break the ice on its legs, its guns would be frozen and struck again. Focus on Weiss, and Adam would shoot by and strike at a brittle zone. Focus on Adam and it was like the amount of Dust thrown upon it would multiply. Torchwick, without caring for what he struck, launched every missile he had at the two before every tracking system he had could be destroyed. Unable to focus on maintaining her semblance, her ice storm and defend herself simultaneously, the glyphs failed just as Adam landed beside her and the two were forced on the retreat.

Seeing Weiss not just backing up but _backflipping_ away from the explosions and refusing to be shown up in the subject of dramatic fighting where he shined, Adam joined alongside her, leaving the two leaping away in acrobatic flips before ending in a midair twist and flourish of their weapons as they landed that—considering their lack of planning—the two found disturbingly well-synchronized.

"Strawberry Sunrise!" Torchwick cursed himself: he was far too used to not playing fair to end up _outnumbered._ He swung the Paladin around to face Yang once more only to find her flipping up into a handstand. Ruby flipped over Torchwick and onto Yang's feet before both of them fired their weapons, launching Ruby high into the air. Following the momentum, Yang landed on her feet and launched for the Paladin under waves of fire before slamming her fist into the machine's leg. Alarms blared inside its cockpit as she shifted her weight from side to side, smashing the joint more and more until one last blow forced its leg back and the rest of its body forward.

The Paladin swung its gun as it fell, striking Yang and sending her skidding along the ground, but all of that focus came at a cost: not noticing Ruby until it was far too late. Flying down at insane speeds with her scythe's blade bent outwards forming it into a true polearm, Ruby let out a battle cry as she jammed her entire blade into the machine's core and forced it down.

Torchwick bit back a scream of pain as the scythe sliced through not just metal, but the flesh of his side, and the Paladin crashed to the ground yet again, sparking. Structural integrity wasn't just low, the entire machine was threatening to crumble away beneath him. Radars showed the police getting brave, now, sending more airships his way. An Atlesian airship was even breaking off from Beacon's docks to come finish the job, no doubt General Ironwood's work. His eyes turned to the four brats gathering in front of him and narrowed. He had himself an idea...

* * *

Team RWAY stepped back in shock as the Paladin was suddenly engulfed in a fiery explosion: it had turned its guns on itself? A lobbed shell landing among the four launched Adam and Weiss backwards, the latter seeing her aura begin to glimmer and shine a bright white, just on the brink of shattering completely. Adam did not fair much better as he rolled with the momentum and flipped back to his feet, a crimson aura flashing around him. They turned their eyes to the sky to find the Paladin reaching the peak of its massive, gun-assisted leap.

It looked a mess: armor plating broken and bent, the guns atop its frame were now burnt and twisted into near-molten slag, and a chunk of its faceplate was cracked, but, copying their techniques had worked for Torchwick. Its arm cannons spun behind it and fired again, sending it falling even faster towards the group and preparing to stomp down on Yang in particular, knowing she'd received some of the worst punishment of the fight. What Torchwick, however, did not expect was her hair to suddenly turn bright as gold and her eyes as red as rubies.

Much less than Ruby sweeping Yang up with her scythe, firing for a boost of speed and throwing her straight at him without the blonde so much as flinching. Ruby spun Crescent Rose to face behind her and yanked the bolt back as rose petals fluttered off into the wind.

"If you want your hat back, take it!" Dashing up the length of the scythe, Adam spun and threw the bowler hat in an arcing throw right between Yang and the Paladin. Behind them in the same instant, Weiss held Myrtenaster up, flicked the cylinder to yellow Dust and channeled as much of her remaining aura into it as she could.

And for Weiss, time slowed to a crawl. Ruby stood ahead of her, crouching and preparing to zoom forward and bring her scythe to bare on whatever of Torchwick was left as rose petals halted mid-twirl in the air around her. Adam reached for the hilt of his blade mid-leap with every thread or strand of red across him blooming with an eerie light matched only by the crimson overwhelming his irises. Yang was rising just at the top of the trio, her fist cocked back, hair a blinding gold and eyes shining red. Weiss wondered, briefly, if there was some strange relation between the two none of them knew of, before lowering her rapier.

Their semblances all active at once, the rest of RWAY also served as a stairway right to Torchwick. Having mastered time dilation to the point where managing her breath was nonessential, Weiss sprung forward, daintily leaping from Ruby to Adam in one stride, Adam to Yang the next. Twirling high above them all, she let rays of ice Dust whirling down onto the Paladin's now-unprotected top, and dragged a black glyph just below them all. As she gracefully landed behind the ensuing carnage and leaped aside, she couldn't help but notice something gleaming from within the bowler hat Adam threw: something Weiss was certain she'd lost when she'd run into Ruby for the first time.

A nice, small, corked bottle of the highest quality powdered red Dust. One with the SDC snowflake on it.

Time resumed.

Ice struck the back of the Paladin, throwing it off-balance and heading towards Yang all the faster. When Yang's fist connected with the jar of Dust and the Paladin's foot both, the resulting explosion sent the Paladin's leg flying off as scrap metal and the Paladin itself flying high into the air yet again, only to be dragged right back down towards the black glyph's extreme gravity. Ruby fired and threw herself fully into her speedy semblance, drawn by the gravity until the glyph vanished just before impact. At such ridiculous speeds that the force of impact had not even traveled up the rest of the Paladin, Ruby swept by with her scythe and tore the Paladin's other leg away with ease.

Dragged in like the others, Adam drew his blade, swung at the Paladin's center, and crimson erupted. The shattered Moon shone high above, a disc of white unable to shed even a ray on a world of silhouettes and red light, as what was once a mighty construct of Atlesan technology wasted away into a roaring storm of scattering and wilting petals both. When Adam sheathed his blade and returned the area to night, Torchwick was left barely conscious in the machine's place.

His right leg wasted away into darkened rose petals.

* * *

 **A/N: I find it nice that, without the Halcyon Days chapter, Torchwick's fight ends on chapter 13 of Volume 2, the same chapter his fight in Volume 1 ended. Some nice bookends. This fight was a lot of fun to write, and took some inspirations(namely the final assault) from Monty's previous works such as Dead Fantasy. I hope it didn't get _too_ long-winded.  
**

 **Now for things to get a little calmer... just a little, though.**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	33. V2: Two Minutes to Midnight

**Two Minutes to Midnight  
**

* * *

At first, all that could be heard to the four members of RWAY were their own breaths and the deafening thud of their heartbeat in their ears. The ground lay torn asunder around them, sections of the freeway shuddered worryingly with entire groups of their structural beams having been reduced to piles of jagged rubble below them, and the scent of burning Dust was overpowering. Rose petals slowly twirled through the air, fading away into black and red until the air was still. Torchwick didn't move, now unconscious, crimson beginning to spread from his ruined leg.

They'd won.

Weiss jammed her rapier into the ground, using it to hold herself steady, and barely so. Every part of her ached. Each time the wind would come by, it provoked a shiver that her muscles would make sure she regretted every second of. Having your aura shattered was much more painful, but it was short and, when the daze wore off, adrenaline would force any remnants of pain aside. But, to _exhaust_ your aura was different. To _exhaust_ your aura left you drained, in pain, and often without even a drop of strength to go on.

"What was _that?!_ " Ruby, however, seemed to have plenty of energy left, bouncing up in down in excitement. "With the speed and the gravity and all the semblances and _whoosh!_ Ooh, we have to come up with a name for it! We'd be unbeatable with it!" Hugging Crescent Rose tight to her, she was set to go on, until they'd gotten back to Beacon.

"Before we start talking new team attacks," Adam began, then motioned his sheathed weapon over towards Torchwick. "What will we do with him?"

"Well, we can't just... leave him like that, can we?" Yang and Ruby were keeping their distance from the fallen criminal, eyes never remaining on him for long. At least, that was what Weiss thought: the world was getting awfully blurry.

"Absolutely. He would not have afforded us that kind of kindness, if we were the ones who were struck down." Adam spat, the venom in his tone leaving his true desire unspoken but well-known: if it were up to him, Torchwick's head would be missing, not his leg.

"... He _did_ hurt a lot of people..." Ruby mumbled just loud enough for them to hear. Yang turned to her sister in shock. Sirens were building up in the distance: they knew the fight was over, now.

"Rubes?" She asked with faint disbelief.

"I'm not saying to just let him... you know... but, the police can take care of him, right?" Ruby stumbled on her words: she must've just been thinking out loud. Typical, for her. Weiss might've been able to see the surprise on Ruby's face, but she had to guess: she was a little too focused on trying to stop the world from turning.

"We can't do anything for him, as we are now. Unless you plan on cauterizing his wound yourself, it'd be best if we leave." Adam came to Ruby's aid on the matter, and from Yang's noncommittal hum, she wasn't too happy about that fact.

"Right. Well, you and Rubes are faster and that other guy's ride got totaled, so looks like you're gonna be on foot. Weiss, mind getting my motorcycle out of the ice? You're paying for it, by the way." Yang chuckled to herself, brushing off any discomfort she had before. "... Uh, Weiss? 'You alright over there?"

Exhaustion finally took its toll on Weiss and, her body feeling like a sack of bricks, she collapsed. The last thing she felt before unconsciousness came to her was a cry of her name, someone grabbing her just before she met the ground, and a distinct, prickling coldness at her neck.

* * *

"We've got a problem." That was the last thing Cinder wanted to hear from Mercury. She sighed, watching the clock on her Scroll for when their operation would begin.

"Speak."

"Ironwood's left the party. I thought he might've just gotten tired of the dancing, but he looked pretty upset when he left. Maybe he got turned down for a dance," He said with a chuckle. Standing beside him and watching over the party finally reaching full swing, Emerald was not so happy. Her eyes were focused on the faculty: when Ironwood left, they started gathering together and speaking in hushed tones. Their smiles were fake, now, masks to keep their precious little students from knowing what was going on.

"Are there any others who might be of note?"

Mercury's eyes lazily scanned the dance floor. "Yeah. Just one: some redhead down there has a guard detail," He immediately stifled a laugh. "One who thinks he has moves, too."

" _Mercury,_ stay focused," Cinder growled.

"Sorry, sorry, there _were_ two of them, but when Ironwood left another two joining up. A whole squad of infantry for one girl at the dance. Sounds a little suspicious, if you ask me."

"Hm... keep an eye on her." Her attention was brought to an alert on her Scroll: Captain Almond had sent a text.

["Torchwick found a couple infiltrators and chased them down in the battlesuit. Haven't heard from him since. We're keeping low: the cops are all over this."]

Cinder sighed. "I found the issue: that little street rat, Roman, managed to get the police's attention with his Paladin. Sometimes I wonder how that fool's managed to keep an entire gang in check when he cannot even prevent two spies from..." She trailed off and narrowed her eyes. "Mercury, where is Team RWAY?"

"No sign of 'em. I heard something about the prissy one going to go drag Ruby to the dance. Yang never showed, and Adam left not too long after Weiss." Adam left, and Blake was nowhere to be found. He was looking for Blake when he'd come to her, as well...

"Find them. _Now._ "

* * *

Sirens were close enough for red and blue to be cast over the roads high above Torchwick's fallen form. A bullhead's thrusters grew louder and louder, and the dull hum of an airship's engines could still be heard above all. No one in team RWAY spoke.

The point of a stiletto blade, extended from a pink, folded umbrella, was pressed against Weiss' neck. The wielder, a short girl a couple inches shorter than even Weiss or Ruby with pink and brown hair, held tightly onto her hostage and glared down the remaining three students with one white eye and one pink. A slim, hate-filled smile slipped across her expression.

Adam's hand was already on his hilt from the moment the mysterious girl arrived, and both Yang and Ruby fell into positions to strike. However, it was a losing battle, and they knew it was: he and Yang had both just used their semblances and were running dangerously low on aura. Ruby was tougher, but, just by the nature of her scythe-based fighting style, Weiss being in front of the girl meant all her speed couldn't stop her from getting hurt.

"What do you want?!" Ruby shouted at Neopolitan. She merely stared at Ruby.

"She's here for Torchwick," Yang growled and took a step forward. Wrong move: Neo pressed the blade just a little harder on Weiss' neck. A bead of red began to form above her mark. The five remained there, tension growing by the second. Adam stood tall and slowly walked forward to Roman, caring little for the blood beneath him and slipped his foot beneath the unconscious man. Neo watched curiously, but did not move her weapon. If anything, she pulled Weiss closer in an almost possessive manner and let her stiletto drift to make a second mark.

"We exchange hostages at the same time. Make one wrong move, and he won't make it to you alive," Adam warned her. She didn't seem to care, simply rolling her eyes and impatiently tapping the cold stiletto blade against Weiss' throat. Ignoring the desire to unsheathe his blade and end that whelp, he kicked Torchwick over towards Neo. The girl shoved Weiss away from her with surprising force where she fell into Ruby's arms, and jumped forward to catch Torchwick. With her blade now hanging off her hand pointed towards the ground and, even with aura, Neo unbalanced by carrying someone so much taller, she was vulnerable to both Adam and Yang's immediate lunge.

Yet, his blade and her fist only collided with air as the image of the two criminals shattered like glass. They were gone, without even a single sign of where they might have went. Searchlights began to pour in from the sky, scanning around not too far from them.

"I'll take Weiss," Adam stated, still watching where Neo and Torchwick once stood. "I should have enough aura to at least get far enough from here."

* * *

The shock of the cold air striking her face turned what should have been a bleary, calm awakening and fluttering of eyes for Weiss to a sharp gasp and worried glancing about. Building rooftops were flying by in darkened blurs, the roads below them little more than streams of light and noise. Wind was beating down upon her, causing her to involuntarily shudder, huddle closer to the only source of heat beside her and pull her coat tighter..

Weiss' eyes focused. Coat? Her mind finally caught up with her eyes, recognizing that she was moving rather fast, and being carried, no less. She looked down to find Adam's coat haphazardly pulled around her more like a comforter. She looked up to see Adam himself, carrying her bridal-style above the metropolis. The city was already thinning out on its way to Beacon: they were close to home.

"Good to know you're awake," Adam suddenly spoke. "You gave us a scare."

"I was just tired after pulling more than my fair share, that's all," Weiss retorted with a slim smile.

He snorted. "If that's the story you want to tell yourself, be my guest." Adam was surprised: he had expected Weiss to have at least one complaint about being carried about town, like this. It was a good thing she hadn't woken up when she was just tossed onto his shoulder. As she shifted only to get herself more comfortable and closed her eyes, Adam decided it simply was a matter of exhaustion.

"Was it not worth it?"

"Considering we had three of us with our Semblances prepared, Torchwick had put himself in a compromising position and his machine was already beginning to crumble, it was a dramatic, superfluous overkill of the highest sort." Adam couldn't help but chuckle. "Which made it absolutely worth it. Just be ready to do all of that yet again when Ruby demands we include it in our 'team attacks'."

"Good thing I already had notes prepared for it..." Weiss mumbled under her breath, a pleased, triumphant smirk on her face as exhaustion still threatened to pull her back into its embrace yet again. Already, it was drawing her eyes closed.

"And slow down, you brute, I think a pebble or something hit my neck..."

* * *

The situation had changed, much to Cinder's dismay. Though it was not yet midnight, rather than having already hacked into the CCT, she was busy watching the news for any sign of Torchwick's mistake, receiving a constant stream of information from both her two underlings and Captain Almond alike. Locations of students, faculty, guards, none were escaping her all-seeing eye.

A message from Beacon Academy itself appeared on her screen: _"Alert to all students and transfers: transport into Vale is currently restricted due to an attack on I-5 at 10:00 tonight."_ Now, she had a time frame: thirty minutes ago in a location about an hour and a half away from Beacon by car meant anyone returning in an hour would be suspects. Hm, perhaps she should go wait by the garages for when Blake and Adam finally returned... it would still give her time to infiltrate the CCT _and_ have the bonus of making sure Adam knew what he was risking...

"Got eyes on Blake."

Cinder blinked. What?

"Looks like she was out with some street rat. Or, uh, monkey, in this case," Mercury casually informed her. "Usual clothes on Blake, no sign of a vehicle. I'm not defending her, but she was pretty uptight about going to the dance with us. 'Guess she just had somebody else in mind to spend the night with—" He guffawed. "Or, maybe not, from that slap she just gave him."

"I'll have Emerald return to the dance. Continue your surveillance, Mercury: I know they were involved." Surely, Adam would not have been so stupid as to try to infiltrate his own branch... even if the masses did not recognize him, the higher-ups—Almond specifically—would have picked him out. Weiss was simply off the table. So, that left Ruby and Yang. Cinder smirked as she contacted Emerald: the two who were coincidentally missing before this party had even begun. They were clever with their little ploys, but not clever enough.

"Emerald, return to idle position and await further orders. In fifty-five minutes, report any sighting of Ruby or Yang."

"Yes, ma'am, I'll be right on my way—" Emerald cried out in surprise before her Scroll clattered to the ground and the din of a passing motorcycle overwhelmed all sound on the other end. Cinder's eyes briefly widened and she moved towards the window: had they grown brave enough for an open assault?

 _"Sorry!"_ Cinder barely heard the young voice calling on the other side, but, she knew who it was, already. Ruby Rose.

"—are such idiots," Emerald was grumbling as she grabbed her Scroll. "Sorry, Cinder, but, the good news is that it looks like we know where the sisters are. It looked like they'd decided to go out somewhere."

"Of course," She hissed. If it wasn't RWAY, this suddenly became much more problematic for her. There was no easy solution. Was it that annoying 'Ace of Spades' fellow who kept assaulting the White Fang, perhaps?

"D-did I do something wrong, Cinder?" Her surprised, anxious tone reminded Cinder that she was not alone, right now. She couldn't afford to lose her cool.

Cinder forced a soft chuckle. "Of course not, dear, you did very well. Go and have your fun, I'll be right beside you, soon." She cooed to Emerald.

"Right, of course!" Cinder could hear the happiness in her apprentice's voice, and couldn't help but let a smile grace her features. Emerald really was a pleasant girl. If only she weren't so dependent on her. Alas, it was useful, so it would just have to stay that way, for now. Her smile faded quickly when another text reached her Scroll:

 _"Roman's hurt. We're staying low. - Neo"_ Now, _that_ girl was a different story. Dependent _and_ unpleasant to be around. Worse yet, she was dependent on the man who was beginning to become a real thorn in her side. Cinder regretted gifting Roman with his knowledge with each passing day: it seemed the moment he realized he was considered non-disposable—but in no way essential, Cinder was quick to remind him—he decided to be as annoying as possible. How juvenile.

Cinder was pleased to know that fool had gotten himself hurt during that battle of his. Cinder was decidedly less pleased when she realized that with him down, getting definite information on the attackers would have to wait: it was unlikely that Neo would be willing to allow her to pay him a surprise visit. Make no mistake: though Neo undoubtedly believed themselves safe and hidden wherever they would, she _could_ find them, but, antagonizing unstable elements can and will backfire.

This night wasn't going as smoothly as she had hoped.

"Oh, now what do we have here?" Mercury's voice sounded in her ear again.

Cinder sighed before smiling and replying, "I _do_ hope it is something more useful, this time."

"See for yourself." She could hear the smirk in Mercury's tone, and that left her all the more curious. Cinder opened up the image he'd sent.

"... _Very_ nice, indeed, Mercury." Though it was from afar, the wonders of modern technology barely left the zoomed-in image grainy at all. A photo of the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company curled up and carried in the arms of not just one of Vale's formerly most dangerous terrorists, but a White Fang leader. His horns clear to see, his coat wrapped around her, and were those love bites she spied? Oh, this was just too good to be true.

"This shall do _wonderfully_ in phase three of our plan. Be careful, Mercury, you just might make Emerald jealous..."

* * *

"I'm baaaack!" Yang announced even over the music as she strutted into the dance hall. Taking after her 'date', if she was going to show, she was going to turn some heads, and she was certainly succeeding in her golden, sleeveless dress slit up the side to show plenty of leg.

Adam rolled his eyes as he stepped in beside her, his old homburg masking his horns. "You never showed up, remember?"

"Pssh, details." She found herself swarmed by her friends before she could say much more, some even asking for a dance. "Hey, hey, hey, give me some space, would ya? Besides," Yang hooked her arm around Adam's, and the man flashed the group a pleasant—if not a tad prideful—smile. "I've already got a date! Now, move it, we haven't even gotten our first dance in!"

Shaking his head, Adam sneaked a glance into the crowd. Emerald and Mercury stood near the back, watching curiously. Perfect.

"And come on, DJ, put on something a little faster, Weiss won't kill you!"

Adam's smile grew more strained. He just needed to remember his lessons...

"Excuse you?" Weiss stormed in behind the two, dragging a grumpy Ruby by her wrist. After an entire night of shopping, the previous day, Ruby finally agreed to one dress: a simple, red backless one with a crimson ribbon tied around it. Something that would let her escaped unnoticed in the crowd. Nothing about her looked particularly happy about this, nor about the 'lady stilts' she called high heels she was forced to wear. She was nearly tackled to the ground by a speeding, mint-green wearing redhead.

"Weiss!" Penny cried and yanked Weiss into a hug. Ruby stifled a laugh beside her as a pair of guards stumbled over themselves trying to follow.

"Oh, Penny! I thought you weren't going to show up!" Yang took the time to sneak off, dragging Adam along with her.

"It took a lot of convincing, but Professor Ozpin let me in!" Penny let Weiss go and leaned over to her, whispering loudly, "Don't worry! I got that... package you sent." She glanced around conspiratorially.

"What package?" The two jolted as one of the soldiers leaned over into their conversation.

"Oh, um, the... this dress! _Hic!_ Weiss had it delivered when she knew I'd be coming to the dance! _Hic!_ " Penny lied to the guard with the biggest grin she could muster. Weiss flashed an equally nervous smile.

"... Riiight."

"Actually," Weiss began and glanced over to her secretly-mechanical friend. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to have a word with Penny outside." She tugged Penny along to follow and started walking back towards the door. The guards followed. "Alone." The girls moved, the guards followed. "Girls _only,_ " Weiss growled, and the soldiers held their hands up and finally relented.

And so Ruby was left standing there, alone. "Does that mean that I can change out of these stupid things and put my hood back on?" She called out after her departing friends, but got no response. With a sigh and grumbled complaint about her stupid lady-stilts, she wandered over to the punch bowl. Sure, this is about what she expected, but she could still _dream_ that her team would be hanging out, together. Weiss at least could've let her talk to Penny too instead of hogging her.

"Not enjoying yourself?" Professor Ozpin's amused voice chimed in behind Ruby. While Ruby didn't know it, herself, Ozpin had seen more than his fair share of missed opportunities to enjoy one's self. It might take a bit of work, but, Ozpin decided he wouldn't let this one pass Ruby by...

* * *

The walk from the dance hall down the road where the two couldn't be eavesdropped on was an awkward one for Weiss and Penny. Primarily, this was because Weiss had no clue what she was doing. It was spur of the moment—reassuring Penny that they were still friends even though she wasn't... _real._ How was she even supposed to phrase that without it sounding awful? Wasn't it still terrible to even consider her not real, in the first place? Weiss furrowed her brow. She should've spent more time thinking about this! She should've—

"Weiss?" Penny piped up behind Weiss, jolting her from her thoughts. "Where are we going?"

Weiss stopped and tried not to look like she'd completely forgotten that they were still walking, in the first place. "Somewhere... safer to talk," She replied with a smile and turned to face Penny, assured that there was no one out on the well-lit streets. All eyes were on the dance, tonight. To her surprise, however, Penny wasn't smiling back.

"If this is about what happened two weeks ago," Penny began. "Do not worry about it. I am one-hundred percent a-okay! _Hic!_ " She lied with a wide, forced smile. "I... _expected_ that to happen! Please continue as if I had said nothing at all!"

"No, no, that isn't right! You simply caught me by surprise, that is all. Nonetheless, I had two long weeks to think about this, and I can tell you with the utmost certainty that I don't care."

Penny tilted her head to one side. "You... don't care?"

Weiss crossed her arms and nodded with conviction. "That's right. I don't care one bit."

"What," The android narrowed her eyes not in anger, but in confusion. "Exactly, do you mean by that?" Though it was fruitless, maybe if she looked hard enough she could identify what was wrong with Weiss.

"What I _mean_ is that you look like us, talk like us, act like us and so on. As far as I am concerned, even if you have bones of steel instead of... well, bone, you _are_ just as human as I am, and that is that."

"You really don't mind?" Penny asked with hope in her eyes. Eyes gleaming with a faint, green light of their own, the faintest lines visible on her iris that only one who knew her secret could hope to look for. It was going to take a little while to get used to things like that, now, Weiss thought to herself.

"Absolutely not! You—" She never got to finish her sentence, for once more she found herself being shaken in a crushing bear hug.

"Ooooh, Weiss, you are the best friend anyone could have!"

 _"Just a brief reminder: I am not made of metal,"_ Weiss wheezed and wriggled in Penny's grip until she was finally freed. After a deep breath, she smiled. "We should return to the dance before those guards following you around start growing agitated and come looking for us. Trust me, I know from experience." She was already moving before she'd even finished speaking.

"Of course, best friend!" Weiss' smile grew just a little more hearing Penny back to her usual self. "Besides, you also have your romantically-interested partner for the dance, Jaune!"

She paused mid-stride and looked back. "How do you know that?"

"He's been telling everyone! Though, he left a short time ago. I hope he wasn't looking for you—oh, there he is!" Penny pointed over towards the dance hall... where Jaune was walking with purpose and confidence towards the door.

In a copy of Weiss' own dress.

* * *

Watching Weiss barge into the hall out of breath with Penny on her tail, Mercury and Emerald leaned back into the shadows atop the balcony overlooking the dance floor. "And that makes everyone. Looks like even RWAY have partners." He spoke seemingly to himself.

 _"How long do I have?"_ Came Cinder's voice from an all-but invisible earpiece. His eyes scanned across the ballroom: while Weiss was busy trying to get an answer out of Jaune for why he chose _her_ dress, Ruby and Yang were trying to teach Penny some dance moves. Mercury's eyes soon fell on Adam, who was simply drinking punch and sitting off to the side.

Their eyes briefly met.

"If you're still looking for that dance, be back by midnight. Just to be safe."

 _"I'll keep my eyes on the clock."_ Standing at a distance atop one of the many rooftops surrounding the center of Beacon, Cinder stared off at the mass of clockwork turning at the top of her target: Beacon Tower, and the Cross-Continental Transmit Center within. She allowed herself to smile.

* * *

 **A/N: Just 1-2 more chapters, and the divergences _really_ start to hit. Sorry for the disappearance, by the way: my work schedule changed suddenly and left me with no time this week to actually sit down and start typing.**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	34. V2: The Bell Tolls

**The Bell Tolls**

* * *

The party was in full swing and, yet, Adam found himself unable to tap into the same happiness the rest of his team had. While Weiss danced with her date and both Ruby and Yang were finding success in teaching Penny the ropes in terms of dancing, Adam remained watching from the seats against the wall. It was a strange sight: someone who arrived in such a striking suit with not just any date, but one of the most popular and boisterous first-years in Beacon, sitting around with those too shy or antisocial to join in the revelry.

But everything just felt... wrong to him. Adam lazily looked over the ballroom and sipped from his cup. Parties were never exactly his thing. Something about celebrating before the final victory was won felt so wasteful, to him, not to mention how, frankly, he felt a little too old to be sitting around some school dance. The colorful, whimsical lights, the streamers scattered about, dancing, giggling teenagers, fast-paced music and total lack of care left Adam feeling like he did not belong and, really, could he? The former terrorist? The White Fang leader? One who had just come back from a life-or-death battle against the very one corrupting his organization?

No. This was his team's place, but it was not his. He noticed Cinder's two lackeys standing above on the second floor. Their eyes briefly locked.

Nor was it theirs.

Adam had to admit to himself that he was a little disappointed that Cinder herself had not made her appearance. He was waiting to see the look on her face as she realized that a blow had been struck, yet there was little to connect it to his team. He chuckled to himself: he also was curious on how someone who had built their very image on a foundation of seduction and maturity would manage to fit in amongst these teenagers. But, alas, there was no sign of her.

That instinctual wrongness set in deeper as he noticed the blonde monkey faunus from before arrive, excitedly talking with a boy with blue hair and goggles oozing with confidence. Blake was nowhere to be found. Where _were_ they? From what he had heard upon actually caring about this dance, it was the talk of the town. All of Beacon's best and brightest would be here, they said. All eyes would be on the dance, they insisted. Even the faculty was taking time off to come here. Even, and after an attack requiring his own attention, no less, General Ironwood himself had returned here. The walk from the garages back here was like moving through a ghost town.

The ex-terrorist narrowed his eyes. All eyes were on the dance. The faculty were all focused in this one small area. Experience from his time as the White Fang's major and scourge of Vale left his mind traveling down a different path: Beacon was vulnerable. Were he in charge, it would be one of the most appetizing targets in his organization's history: a free run of Beacon and all of the to-be-Huntsmen and Huntresses packed up in a nice little easy-to-destroy building.

No. It couldn't be an assault on the dance hall itself. Unless they themselves were performing the attack, the presence of Emerald and Mercury made that a non-option, and there was no way Cinder would sacrifice two major pawns so readily. So, what was it? A pricking chill ran up his spine. What was essential? What else was _vulnerable_? If he were still in charge, what would he have used this valuable time to attack?

The CCT.

Far enough from the dance to escape the notice of Beacon, close enough to be returned to in short notice if compromised. If Cinder was infiltrating or assaulting the CCT, Mercury and Emerald were no doubt there to keep watch.

Adam's eyes flicked up to search for his team. Weiss was on the other side of the ballroom, idly chatting with JNPR and Penny. Ruby had managed to get wrapped up with Sun in excitedly trying to tell the blue-haired boy what had happened while trying not to be _too_ loud about it. Making a beeline for Weiss could result in questions or attention, and there was no doubt in Adam's mind that trying to surreptitiously draw Ruby away would get Sun and his friend to follow whether he wanted them to, or not. That left one option.

* * *

As the DJ turned to slower songs, Yang finally managed to wriggle away from her friends long enough to get herself some punch when she felt a tap at her shoulder. Adam stood behind her with a confident smirk on his face, quite the departure from how he was lounging away from as many people as possible.

"Oooh, I was wondering when you'd finally get over here. Waiting for a slow dance, hm?" She asked teasingly as she turned around.

"Was I so obvious?" He offered his hand to her, and soon they were one with the crowd, gently moving in-tune with the others. Emerald and Mercury had finally come down from their perch, and were dancing ever so close to them. Perfect. Yang's eyes widened a little when Adam brought her closer until the two were against one another... but, she wasn't complaining.

She was just about to speak when Adam leaned down just over her shoulder and murmured, _"Follow my lead. We need to leave as soon as possible."_

Yang couldn't exactly keep the flicker of annoyance from crossing her expression. "Way to lead a girl on, Adam." She huffed. Well, she supposed it wasn't all bad: frankly, if he'd changed that quickly, she would've thought something was wrong with him.

"Who, me? I had no such intentions," Adam insisted with a sly smile, as if he'd said nothing at all. "Dancing simply is not much of my style. Were it up to me, this night could be spent doing much more."

"You know, _I_ remember that you dragged me off from the club to come here. Even though I told you exactly where I would be, tonight..." Yang kept up their false alibi.

"I wasn't thinking about clubbing," He cooed suggestively. Over Yang's shoulder, Adam could see Mercury arch an eyebrow as the two kept a close eye on them.

She giggled, although more from hearing their team's stoic flirting than anything else. "Well, aren't _you_ being forward, tonight. Are you sure they didn't spike the punch?" Yang brought them out from the crowd and towards the door as the song ended. "Lead the way, big guy..."

Emerald brought a hand through her hair, no doubt activating an earpiece. As Adam led Yang outside, he could faintly hear Emerald speaking, and not to Mercury. He smirked. A complete success.

* * *

 _"Two priority guests leaving for the dormitories: Yang and Adam. They sounded... ugh, 'excited'. Do we interfere?"_

Cinder withdrew her thin, stiletto blade from the back of a guardsman's neck: he hadn't even known what hit him. The crystalline weapon faded into little more than ash, carrying the blood with it. The entrance to the CCT was now entirely unmanned.

"No... let's not make ourselves more suspicious. The further away from us they are, the better." She idly kicked the guard's corpse into the bushes, but not before taking the rifle for herself. She took a glance behind her, smiled and, with the hum and flashing of golden glyphs, she took on the very appearance of the guard she eliminated.

It would only be fitting that the next step in Beacon's destruction would come with the face of the authority they trusted so much.

* * *

"So, are you going to tell me what's going on, or what?" Yang eventually asked as she and Adam jogged down the street towards the center of Beacon.

"Cinder's using the dance as a distraction," Adam replied urgently and whipped his Scroll out from his pocket. "She's targeting the CCT, I know it. The damage she could cause from there is incalculable. I needed an alibi that would last long enough for me to get there without drawing her attention: unfortunately, it needed you." A brief input of numbers later and a locker came screaming from the skies and skid to a halt just ahead of them. The door popped off, revealing not Adam's weapon, but a simple pair of short rifles and a black hoodie: equipment belonging to the 'Ace of Spades'.

"Sorry," He offered a flat apology as he threw the hoodie on over his suit and drew a modified, black White Fang mask from one of its pockets. He rubbed one of the two lenses replacing the normal four slits with his gloved thumb. "If I'm not back in twenty minutes, return to the dance without me." Adam, now truly the Ace of Spades—although a fair bit messier—checked his rifles. Alibi or not, Cinder would know exactly who he was the moment he stepped in the door. The point, however, was to keep her from knowing until he got there, and just in case anyone _else_ saw him.

The crash of a second locker next to him nearly had Adam opening fire.

"Well, if that's the case, you should've just said so! Come on, like I'm gonna give up a chance to wipe that smug look off of her face." Yang grinned and put on her golden gauntlets.

"Besides, it's no fair that everyone _else_ has gone on crime-stopping adventures with you!"

* * *

The inside of the CCT, usually so full of activity and noise, was a truly empty place, now. In the silence and low light, the inside looked larger than ever. Even the center, normally so claustrophobic with its cramped spaces and terminal that took up the majority of the room, felt spacious and was filled with shadow. It might've been the easiest graveyard shift in the world, but it still kept the four guards posted on guard. The only light in the terminal room was a constant, ghostly-green glow emanating from below the walls.

"This place is too freakin' spooky..." One of the guards mumbled to himself. To prove his point, the main door getting slammed jolted every guard there. One of their comrades were running in like an entire Grimm horde was behind him, panting heavily by the time he even got up close. The four were immediately gathered in front of him, trying to figure out what's wrong.

The answer was the tired guard himself. A spray of rifle fire sent a guard down clutching his stomach, and by the time the other three even had time to recoil, the rogue soldier slammed the butt of the weapon into the other's head and flipped up into a roundhouse kick that sent the other two sprawling and stunned into the stairs. Groaning, one of the stunned men tried to rise. A burst of gunfire sent him to the ground. Permanently. The final two followed him.

A sly smile on her face, Cinder sauntered over towards the only one who hadn't perished just yet: ironically, the first one she'd fired upon. Though the guard's eyes were obscured by his helmet, she could feel the hatred rising from him. Fury and betrayal so potent it was as if the survivor was trying to strangle her with anger alone.

"Be proud. Your death may appear fruitless, but you shall be seen as a hero. A hero who stopped the White Fang from attacking the very heart of Beacon Academy." The voice coming from the traitor was clearly not his own, instead being that of a woman's. As a ring of shining, orange glyphs began rising around one of the corpses, the lone survivor realized that whatever this was, it was far and away beyond him.

Cinder casually stood beside the elevator, leaving behind her a man bleeding to death just across from a White Fang insurgent in full uniform. As far as anyone knew, this assault would be an awful terrorist attack on the CCT that failed due to the heroic actions of a single soldier. A nice sob story for the peaceful masses of Vale.

The elevator opened, and shouts of shock and horror quickly rang out from a pair of clueless guards inside. Focused on their fallen, they ran right past Cinder without even noticing her. She slipped inside the elevator and let the door close behind her.

They'd be clueless long after she was gone.

* * *

Yang and Adam, the latter only recognizable as the Ace of Spades, raced down the darkened streets of Beacon. No alarms, no sign of forced entry, no burns or signs of combat, either. For the briefest moment, Adam wondered if he had been wrong about this the entire time. That fear was alleviated the moment the CCT's entrance was in sight, and from below the many stairs leading up to its doors, they could see not a soul was around. Even Vale would never do such a callous thing.

"Yang, keep to the side, I'll take point." He trusted in Yang to follow orders and did not even glance back before picking up the pace, leaping up numerous stairs at a time and sliding in place beside the grand windows. No one in the lobby, either, but he could hear voices. Faint. Tense. Alarmed? No, they were calm: the incident had already passed. He kept his ear to the glass.

 _"Three dead in the terminal room. Suspect, male, has already been neutralized: he appears to be affiliated with the White Fang. It's probably just some lone wolf... Of course, General, your presence would be appreciated."_ Adam tensed. No Cinder. She must still be there. He slowly opened the main door of the lobby: no one there, either. The path clear, Adam waved Yang forward and was gone in a blur of black, racing towards the center as quickly as he could.

Two soldiers stepped out from around the central terminal just as the vigilante stepped into the room. For Adam, it was as if two seconds took a minute to pass: the guards took one look at the incoming intruder clad in black with the mask of either a dangerous vigilante—if they knew who he was—or a terrorist, and had already begun to raise their pistols. A soldier's hand moved towards his ear to report on the intrusion. Adam raised his rifles: he could not allow anyone to hear that he'd been here.

Adam fired first, the shot slamming into the side of the soldier's helmet and destroying the communications within. He was still recoiling when the vigilante flipped over the two and struck them down with a pair of sharp kicks. A mask and flurry of black was all that the two could see before they were knocked out. It would have to do.

Hearing the gunfire, Yang rushed into the room only to be caught short at the sight of so many dead and wounded. She let out a soft gasp and looked up towards Adam with shock. Her widened eyes held within them an unspoken question: were they too late?

Adam turned to the elevator up. Digital numbers ticked upwards towards the top floor. He grunted. "She's still here. We have time."

Yang cracked her knuckles and her lilac eyes slowly turned a bloody red. This was beyond just wounding egos, now.

* * *

 _"Another guest is leaving."_ It was Emerald yet again.

Cinder sighed as she strolled out of the elevator onto the darkened communications floor. Computers were in long rows all the way to the windows overlooking Beacon itself, but her attention was drawn to the front desk itself, and the three dimly-glowing, green holographic monitors.

"Which one is it, now?" Her disguise burned away to ashes while she slipped behind the desk and drew out a black Scroll with a burgundy 'M' inscribed on the back.

 _"It's Ironwood!"_ Came a hushed whisper from the other side.

 _"Leaving twice, so soon? Punch must go straight through him."_ Mercury chuckled to himself.

 _"Orders?"_

"The same as before. Continue to keep me posted." She set connected the Scroll into the system, and immediately it went to work, displaying a black Queen chess piece on the monitor before the system left all of its functions bare to her. A simple bar appeared, filling up as the Scroll transferred the largest of its malicious contents. "We'll be done here very soon." Cinder spent the time accessing and wiping the cameras: how foolish would it be if she went through all of this just for some lowly grunt in security to see her, later?

And just as the first of the files uploaded themselves, the elevator chimed. Cinder froze. Her eyes shot towards the bar: she needed more time!

* * *

Weapons at the ready, Adam and Yang both stepped out into the communications room in unison, scanning it over with rifles and shotgun-gauntlets both. Nothing.

"Crap, we really were too late, weren't we?" Yang growled and let her fists fall, but Adam held his arm out and waved over towards the front desk with his rifle. In the entire room, it had the only screens that were on.

"The infiltrator must have left before our arrival." Adam nodded to Yang and began silently walking closer to the desk, guns pointed down and ready.

"What a coward..." She grumbled under her breath and raised her fists, ready for a surprise attack at any moment.

To their surprise, however, Cinder lithely rose up from behind the desk to face them. She sauntered closer, dressed in all black leather with a number of odd capsules and canisters attached to her belt and thighs. Yang glared daggers at her as she looked the two over with a masquerade mask of pure, black glass blocking the upper half of her face.

"My, my, fancy meeting you two here. Yang. _Adam._ " The 'Ace of Spades' did not so much as flinch at Cinder's knowledge. "I'm surprised, I didn't think you would be so brave as to risk Blake to try and stop me."

"Why, Cinder, I'm insulted that you would think I'm so callous. _I_ happened to see a suspicious person moving towards the CCT. Imagine my surprise when it turns out to be the White Fang and their leader is on the top floor. Perhaps, you shouldn't have gotten spotted."

"Cute." Cinder's eyes dipped towards the front desk. It didn't go unnoticed. "But, let it not be said that I do not listen to reason. Turn around and walk away."

Yang spat in annoyance. "Yeah, right, and why should we do that?"

With a roll of her eyes, Cinder placed her hand on her hip. "Turn back now, and I'll pretend like I never saw this happen." Adam appeared to mull this over, even beginning to lower his rifles. He smirked.

"I don't believe you!" Yang suddenly fired her shotguns at Cinder, recoiling in surprise as, with a flick of her hand, the pellets disintegrated into glowing embers. With Cinder's attention elsewhere, however, Adam bull rushed her and leaped up into a flying kick. Their foe spun around and the leather of her suit flashed a dangerous orange before the embers grew and coalesced into dual, glass blades that she deflected Adam's strike with and threw him into the terminals beneath the windows.

"Alright, try blocking this, then!" As Adam jumped back off of the computers to attack Cinder from behind, Yang sprung forward into a devastating uppercut, yet both were deflected by the blades with ease. Cinder let a smile reach her face as she stepped back and beckoned them towards her. The two gladly obliged, aggressively striking in tune with one another: a sweep of Adam's leg was followed by a lunging jab from Yang, a fake out from Yang to Cinder's left heralded a swing of Adam's gun from the right. There was not even a second of space between the barrage of blows and, yet, Cinder parried and dodged without effort.

Until a fiery punch from Yang shattered her sword. When Cinder hurriedly leaned out of the way of the incoming blow, Adam fired one of his rifles point-blank into her stomach, sending her skidding backwards. Crimson gathered around the barrel of his guns, growing and sliding away from the steel like blood as he turned his willpower from the shield that defended him into a piercing blade. He unleashed a storm of red-clad bullets all but certain to pierce through her projected aura.

They, too, were blocked with a wave of Cinder's hand.

* * *

General Ironwood stepped into a warzone. From the moment he had walked into the lobby only to find the scent of death and his own men scattered on the floor, it was the only thing he was willing to call it. At the least, two of them lived, and they both could confirm that it was not just the dead White Fang operative who had come to attack, but a second who had knocked them both unconscious while they were investigating.

His hand clenched around his heavy pistol as the loud thunder of gunfire and explosives sent rumbles through the elevator before he was even halfway up. Ironwood wondered how much of it was real.

* * *

Yang roared and dashed for Cinder once more while she was occupied, the woman breaking into a short sprint towards them, herself. She dug her foot into the ground, turned her hips, and threw all the torque and aura she could into a mighty right hook. Weaving smoothly out of the way, Cinder grabbed onto Yang and acrobatically flipped herself over both her and Adam. At the peak that brought her almost to the ceiling, the embers turned her blade into a bow and multiple arrows, each loosed in succession before her foot even touched the ground.

Adam spun behind Yang who blocked and threw each arrow into the floor with her gauntlets. A high-pitched whine and flash of light came from the points of impact, and before the two could even respond, they were blasted to the back of the communication's room in a deafening explosion. Glass belonging to the CCT's terminals, windows and Cinder came down upon them like rain, but their auras still held strong.

The three would find themselves glad for the brief pause for, as the two jumped back up to their feet and Cinder drew back her bow for yet another barrage, the elevator chimed. For the first time, they saw a genuine flicker of panic cross Cinder's face. She loosed the arrows and dived for the front desk, but, before they'd even gotten halfway across the room each exploded in a ball of flame and light.

* * *

Another warzone. Ironwood very carefully moved from the relative safety of the elevator doors into the ruined communications room, keeping a watchful eye for any intruders.

No one.

Only burnt holes in the floor, shell casings, flashing monitors and shattered windows across the entire room. A howling wind whipped through the room, rattling the pieces of metal and rock blown loose from the structure. Only the front desk had remained unscathed. Ironwood slowly lowered his gun and stepped closer.

 _Crack_

He whipped his gun back up and scanned over it once. Then twice. A third time, to be sure. Only then did he so much as take a single step forward.

And, only then, did he notice the remains of the glass slipper that he'd broken beneath his boot.

* * *

The wind whipped across Yang and Adam like thin blades as they plummeted towards the ground from one of the CCT's highest windows. The rush of air made it all but impossible to hear what Yang was saying, but, Adam was certain she was laughing about it all. With blasts from her gauntlets, she flew through the air and over the plaza, only rolling to a halt far from the CCT, with almost all of her momentum just sending her forward. The sky briefly flashed red above her, and two bullets blew craters into the ground beside Yang, the rubble turning to wilting rose petals as Adam daintily landed beside her.

"Think they'll be upset about all the damage?" Yang jokingly asked as she looked over the two holes in the ground and back up to the broken windows.

"More than likely... too bad they'll never be able to stick us with the bill." Adam chuckled, and the two began the long walk back to the dance hall.

* * *

"Ah, may I cut in?" Emerald glanced over her shoulder to find Cinder safe and sound, not even a scratch or hair out of place. She would have smiled if Cinder's eyes were not focused solely on her. Cinder chose her to dance, instead of Mercury. That meant something had gone wrong.

"Hey, be my guest." How Mercury managed to remain as smug as usual in such a circumstance, Emerald didn't even know. He stepped away, and Emerald took Cinder's hand, ready for the bad news.

"So, how's your night been?" But, she would stick to the script, nonetheless.

"Fairly more exciting than I had anticipated. The blonde and the bull certainly know how to try and make a girl's night," Cinder replied with a soft chuckle. She may have looked confident and in control, but, Emerald had been around her for long enough to see the agitation lurking behind those pools of amber. She took the lead, gently bringing them across the dance floor to try and take her mind off of the mission's shortcomings.

"Should... we be worried?"

"Not exactly. We can see all, but we can't touch. Not just yet."

"Do they know?"

Cinder smirked. "Not in the least. Even if it will take longer than we planned, they won't have a clue until we are already gone." Another turn brought Adam and Yang into her sights, chatting with Ruby beside the punch bowl as if they hadn't fought just moments ago. The two mockingly raised their glasses to her. "No matter who is in the way."

Emerald sighed in relief and let a more genuine smile grace her features. There was still hope. "So, then, what now?"

"We celebrate what we have, just like the rest of them. Today, we rest." She did not shy away from showing Emerald a warmer smile rather than her usual confidence. A slow spin turned her sight from her two former opponents to Weiss and Penny dancing beside Jaune and Pyrrha without a care in the world.

"After all, we will have so many more chances in the days ahead..."

The clock struck midnight, and the bells began to toll.

* * *

 **A/N: And now all that remains is the direct aftermath.  
**

 **Since Maidens and their ability to simply just cast magic was something that came along in Volume 3, I had a few more 'magical' moments for Cinder here to show off how some things just can't be explained by aura, like her expanded illusions and, just as noticeably, completely no-selling aura penetration with her shield.**

 **While Ruby's role in this pseudo-dance arc was lessened, don't worry. She plays a much bigger role in the final arcs of V2.**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	35. V2: Deceiving Debriefing

**Deceiving Debriefing**

* * *

Yang yawned as the elevator she was in just last night climbed up Beacon Tower to Ozpin's domain. Yeah, she totally expected to be called to the Headmaster's office that morning: even if they had no proof, Headmaster Ozpin was apparently known for always being able to tell just which of his students had been up to no good. What she did not expect, however, was to stroll out of the elevator to find General Ironwood and Professor Goodwitch standing on either side of an empty desk. From the agitated glares at nothing in particular and Goodwitch's reddened face, it looked like there'd been quite the argument before she came in.

"Good, you're on time," Goodwitch sighed and tried to excise the annoyance from her tone. "I apologize for us having to interrupt your weekend on such short notice, especially after Saturday's dance."

"That being said, after last night's events, it is imperative that we get as much information as possible." General Ironwood walked closer with a faint, but still genuine, smile and laid a hand on Yang's shoulder. "Before we do so, however, I feel that it is appropriate to inform you that your actions were exactly what being a Huntress is all about. You recognized a threat. You took action. You did all that you could."

Yang flashed an uneasy grin and glanced over at Goodwitch, who was busy staring at Ironwood with barely-hidden disdain. "That's, uh, really great to hear, but I have just a couple questions."

The general folded his arms behind his back. "Please, speak your mind."

"Well, I was called up here by the headmaster. Where is he?" Ironwood's smile faded.

"And the second?"

"What happened, last night?"

* * *

It hadn't been the first time Adam had been in this room, so indiscernible from that of a police interrogation room beyond the single, small window behind him: dingy light, slate-gray walls, the steel table sitting in the dead center of the room. Right now, the early rays of the Sun beat down upon him as he stared at the man standing at the door across from him: Headmaster Ozpin. His hat laid in his lap: it was unneeded. Ozpin already knew.

"I must admit, I did not expect to see you here so soon, Mister Taurus." It wasn't the only thing Ozpin had known, either.

Adam's eyes imperceptibly narrowed at the easy use of his true last name. "It looks like we're both surprised, here. Why don't you tell me why I'm really here."

"I think we both know the answer to that." He casually walked forward, let his cane lean against the steel table and took a seat, steaming mug of hot chocolate in hand. And so, the two stared one another down, waiting for the other to crack first. Ozpin peered over his glasses and sighed. "Why don't you tell me what you were doing, last night."

"After searching for my date all over Vale, I returned to the dance. I drank punch. Danced. Chatted with my peers. You were there, I don't believe I need to tell you what you could already see," Adam reported stoically.

"I may be wise, but I do not have eyes across the entire school. What I did not see is just where you and Miss Xiao Long were between 11:15 and 11:55, last night."

A sly smirk spread across Adam's face. "Now, Headmaster, I may question your decision in packing a bunch of teenagers meant to be close to one another in tiny, co-ed dormitories for years, but I think you might not exactly be interested in our _private_ life."

* * *

"So, allow me to get this straight," Yang's supposed ignorance of the CCT attack appeared to had have left General Ironwood in an increasingly sour mood. His smile had slipped into a disappointed frown. Sharp features and dominating height left him feeling all the more imposing. "You _don't know_ what happened at the CCT?"

Yang slowly shook her head. "Nooot a clue, I was probably out with my partner."

Goodwitch and Ironwood traded glances. Though a flicker of amusement crossed Goodwitch's face, General Ironwood narrowed his eyes and turned to Ozpin's desk. A quick tap on it caused the windows to grow opaque, and the light to slowly become strangled out of the room.

He sighed, placed his Scroll onto the desk and turned to Yang. A black chess piece flickered to life on the screen before it created a large hologram of the CCT tower and the surrounding areas. "Well, then, allow me to _remind_ you. At 11:27, Beacon systems recorded the launch of a rocket locker near the tower that was not linked to any student currently attending. At 11:30, _your_ locker was launched to coordinates a mere five feet away." He pointed to a pair of gleaming red dots on the holographic road as Yang winced.

* * *

"And, while we may not be able to directly link the first locker to you, Mister Taurus, it would be quite the coincidence that two people leave, two lockers built for rapid response land, two people return to the dance... and, supposedly, only _one_ of you noticed what had happened." Ozpin took a long sip from his mug, letting the information sink in, before continuing. "So, I will ask you again: why don't you tell me where you were, last night?"

Adam ground his teeth. Caught red-handed. Even if he could come up with an adequate reason for him not being there, it would throw Yang under the bus at best.

"Adam. I have trusted you with the lives of my students, and, for the most part, you have done your part quite nicely. However, I would be lying if I said I was not worried about reports saying that there were two attackers: a mere footsoldier in the White Fang, and a potentially Hunstman-level assailant who is still at large. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?" There was accusation, yes, but no hostility in Ozpin's tone, but, from the piercing, cold stares both men gave each other, it was clear that there was no love lost between them. Not now. Not while they were potentially threats to one another.

He snorted in derision.

* * *

"We're jumping to conclusions pretty fast here, aren't we?" Yang let out a nervous laugh.

"I wouldn't say so. A White Fang assailant, even an officer, was _here,_ inside of Beacon. This assailant knew of the dance, the codes of a locker, and made it through the entirety of Beacon without alerting anyone else. It is clear that there is an infiltrator within our ranks, or even a sympathizer. If you were to know of who that might be—"

"James," Professor Goodwitch growled, glaring daggers at Ironwood's back. "That is _enough._ "

Reluctantly, James stepped away from Yang, and retrieved his Scroll, dissipating the hologram as Goodwitch moved up to take his place as the 'lead' speaker. "That being said, we cannot stress enough just how dangerous this man or woman could be. You are _not_ in trouble, Miss Xiao Long. All we ask of you is to help us keep our students safe."

* * *

"The very same thing I asked you to do when you were debriefed on the White Fang's attack at the docks, Adam. Keep my students safe. Whatever you are keeping hidden right now is doing quite the opposite, and, whether or not you were directly involved, I refuse to allow any threat towards my students to remain here. If you want me to help you with your second chance at life, then you must _trust_ me."

Adam remained silent for a few moments, then let out a deep sigh, leaned forward and propped up his head on steepled hands. Ozpin was smart: he'd left him with no other choice, now.

* * *

"Alright, if you want to know the truth, then here it is."

Yang shrugged. _"Alright, if you want to know the truth, then here it is."_

They'd have to use the _second_ stage of their cover story.

* * *

 _"Adam and I were walking back to the dorms when we saw one of those rocket lockers go flying over our heads. Now, sure, it might be a nice and safe dance and all, but, that's still never a good sign."_

"I made nothing of it, however, Yang was insistent that we check out whatever was going on. She brought her own locker down, we saw someone—presumably your infiltrator—moving towards the CCT, and Yang rushed off to pursue."

 _"I got up to the front door, and everyone was already... dead. Knocked out, I don't know, but they weren't moving. Even the White Fang guy. But, I saw the elevator going up, and whoever this guy was, he clearly didn't want anything good, right? Either he was going for the CCT or maybe even this office right here."_

"By the time I'd caught up to Yang, she had reached an elevator of her own. At this point, I had no choice: I had to support my teammate. Unfortunately, by the time either elevator would allow me up, I heard someone else approaching from outside. I slipped away and returned outside as he entered. I wasn't able to join Yang before she reached her destination."

 _"And after aaall the waiting on that elevator, at the top floor, there was only one person there. Someone in black I only saw for a quick second before they jumped out of the window. It looked like they wrecked up the place real bad, too."_

"I had just stepped outside when I saw someone hit the ground and go running off past me. Before I could question or pursue, Yang dropped down and accidentally knocked me over. The infiltrator was gone before we could rise."

 _"... Yeah, maybe jumping after whoever it was wasn't too good of an idea, but, it could've been worse. After all that excitement we just dusted ourselves off and decided we should probably just go relax at the party before too many people ask questions."_

"Which brings us to 11:55, when we entered. Are you pleased, 'Headmaster'?"

* * *

Despite Adam's agitation, Ozpin smiled. "Quite so, Mister Taurus. That being said, I do still have some questions for you: just how did this infiltrator manage to pass you without you recognizing even a single thing about them?"

"The infiltrator was in a hurry, and Yang's landing drew my attention to her rather than the assailant. I'm afraid I could not make out too many of her features."

Ozpin's brow rose. " _Her_ features? So it was a woman, then?" He narrowed his eyes slightly as Adam took a sharp breath: his student was hiding something. Ozpin took a leisurely drink as Adam tried to form an answer—or, more likely, another formulated lie.

"... It is a distinct possibility. She was saying something as she had run off: something about returning to the southeast." It was good information, but what mattered more was how it was presented: it was bait, an attempt to get him off of the trail of the attacker, themselves. Though he had his suspicions, there was no hard proof that Adam was even in contact with the White Fang any longer. With it being unlikely to be cooperation, the other option in Ozpin's mind was coercion, but what could they levy against Adam to force him to comply? He believed his attempt at integrating him with humans was working quite nicely, but not nicely enough for someone who had potentially caused the deaths of over a hundred to care for their well-being over his own... and without even flinching, no less.

Ah, that left one person.

Ozpin took a long drink from his mug. "Thank you for that. We will be sure to keep it in mind for our searches. Things are getting rather tense, here, so why don't we move on to more casual topics." He put on a convincing, warm smile. "I'd heard that Miss Belladonna has finally arrived, I hope you two are getting along."

And there it was: Adam suddenly tensed and his eyes hardened until they were like daggers pointed at Ozpin's own heart. It lasted for nary a second, his eyes barely even turning amber, let alone red, but it was still there.

"Famously." It was clear that would be the end of that conversation.

"I see. Well, I believe that should cover this debriefing. You are free to go." He let out an uncharacteristically deep sigh. Ozpin hoped that Adam was not entirely compromised, but, he was too important of a piece to throw away on mere suspicions. He gathered his cane and stood tall, giving a last nod to Adam before walking to the door. He stopped with his hand on the handle, just as Adam began to rise.

"And, Adam, I assure you that whatever threat that she is holding above you is nothing compared to the tragedies that will occur if you allow her to succeed," Ozpin solemnly warned him.

"With all due respect, Headmaster, as far as I am concerned, those tragedies are nothing to me compared to her threat."

The headmaster sighed as he walked away. "That is exactly what I feared."

* * *

"Can you describe the infiltrator?" Both Goodwitch and Ironwood were leaning forward slightly: they cared more for the information than picking apart the story. Awesome.

"I..." Yang sighed. "Not really: they wore all black, so they blended in pretty well with the sky. I think they had black hair, though. That's all I know." The two authorities mulled over this information to themselves.

"The glass slipper," General Ironwood spoke and turned to Goodwitch. "When I came in, there was some sort of black, glass slipper left behind by the intruder. It was a woman, without a doubt."

Yang tried her best not to grin as Professor Goodwitch's eyes gleamed with recognition. "A black-haired woman with glass slippers sounds a lot like a woman I'd fought just before the school year began. The choice in footwear was not particularly common by any means."

"The one who attacked my sister?" That was _her?_ Yang bit back her wrath. Just stick to the plan... "You think she was one of Torchwick's goons?"

Ironwood scowled. "It would explain how the White Fang managed to get the resource to steal one of our Paladins. Nonetheless, thank you for your time, Miss Xiao Long. You are free to go... and I believe it goes without saying that this matter is highly classified."

With a pleasant smile and nod, Yang quickly made her way back to the elevator before the two had any ideas on questioning her further. Once the doors closed, she pumped her arms and laughed in triumphant victory. She might've been a fun-loving blonde, but she wasn't stupid: Yang knew that if they slipped tiny clues, the faculty would probably come to the right conclusion themselves without making it obvious that they were the ones that snitched. Couple it up with lying at first to make it sound like they were just afraid of getting in trouble, and they wouldn't prod. She looked down at the buttons, where one that headed to the communications room pasted over with a simple note claiming it was 'under renovations'.

Especially since they were trying to cover up the incident.

* * *

It was by pure coincidence that both Adam and Yang stepped out from their respective elevators at the same time. While Yang was strolling along with her hands in her pockets and a wild grin on her face, Adam was silent and contemplative. They waited until they were outside Beacon Tower and no doubt the prying eyes within before speaking to one another.

"You doin' alright there, Adam? It looks like the headmaster killed your dog, or something." Yang's voice snapped Adam back to reality. Though her smile was just as bright as ever, her worries were clear in her lilac eyes.

"I'm fine," Adam reassured her. "It was just that he was a little more observant than I had anticipated. Nothing that should interfere with the plan. Speaking of which, he knows exactly what he should: that she 'just so happened' to mention a base to the southeast. Unfortunately, a slip of the tongue let him in that it was also a woman. Sorry for stepping in on your side of things."

"Oh-ho-ho, don't worry about _that,_ " Yang said with a wild grin. "General Ironwood said he found a glass slipper in the room, and guess what Professor Goodwitch found out? Someone with weird shoes like that was already spotted with Torchwick once, so they've already got her pinned as being with Torches _and_ the White Fang, just like that, and with the evidence _she_ screwed up and left."

"How did they manage to remember something that minor?" Yang's irises briefly shined a vibrant magenta, even though she kept on smiling. Perhaps it was the similarity to his own, but Adam had found it increasingly easy to read Yang: she was hiding her anger. At least while they were out in the open.

"Cinder was the one who attacked Ruby when she went after Torchwick the first time, and Professor Goodwitch was there to stop her."

Adam smirked mirthlessly as he looked over at Yang. "She has an awful tendency to go after family, doesn't she? Just try to leave something left for me."

With a tough bark of a laugh, Yang playfully punched Adam's arm. "No deal! But, hey, that plan worked out absolutely great, didn't it?" She held her hand out. "Come on, up top!"

Rolling his eyes, Adam high-fived her.

* * *

Their walk back to the dormitories would find itself cut short by a growing crowd of cheering people not too far from the visitor's housing. While Yang was instinctively drawn towards the commotion, Adam was fine with ignoring it... right up until the sharp reports of gunfire rang out. The cheering grew louder. If there was anything good about being well-known faces, it was that their influence let them quickly wade through the shouting crowd, people gladly stepping aside for the two.

One student was thrown onto his back from an errant shot in front of them just as they arrived at the source, half-laughing and half-groaning as his aura shielded him. Standing in the center of a ring of students, slowly pacing along the edges of their makeshift arena was Pyrrha and Mercury. The spartan fighter had a fire in her eyes that the two could not recall ever seeing, yet, with his pleasant smirk and lazy demeanor, Mercury looked like he could care less. As the two suddenly lunged at one another once more, trading kicks and sword blows evenly, Adam spotted Blake worming her way up to the front of the crowd. Nodding to Yang to follow him, the two forced their way around.

The cheers rose to a feverish pitch as with a whirling set of kicks in mid-air, Mercury struck down Pyrrha's blade and left it buried halfway into the concrete beneath them. Through the gaps between people, the two could see flickers of tan skin and green across from them: Blake wasn't the only member of Mercury's team, here.

"I was expecting a little more from Jaune's babysitter. Come on, aren't you fighting for your princess' honor?" Mercury jeered. Adam and Yang finally got to the other side of the battle while Mercury placed himself between Pyrrha and her weapon, leaving her with only her shield to fend him off.

"Blake, what's going on? Why are they fighting?" Yang asked the moment that Blake was in earshot.

She sighed and shook her head. "Mercury and some blonde kid got into an argument, something about a rumor of him having faked his records. He tried to fight Mercury to prove himself, but..." Blake motioned back to the fight, where Pyrrha had just deflected one of Mercury's kicks, throwing it aside with her bare hand. While Mercury stumbled away from her sword, he recovered before the 'invincible girl' could strike back. "If he can stand up to Pyrrha Nikos, you can imagine how that went. She broke it up and fought in his place."

Adam snorted. "A real piece of work."

"An asshole," Yang added.

"Smart." Blake's disinterested reply earned a glare from Yang and a curious look from Adam. "He's gathering information on how she fights for the tournament."

 _"Mercury."_ Before their discussion could turn into a full argument, a silky voice came from the crowd that carried itself even above the shouting. Cinder, in the uniform of Haven, sauntered through the students, an aura of command and mystery having people who had never even seen her face to already leave room for her entrance. Mercury put his hands up and stepped back from Pyrrha, his back to his team leader, hiding his triumphant smirk. "Enough is enough. Picking a fight with the students of your host? Do not be so despicable."

He shrugged. "Sorry, boss. I guess I got a little too carried away."

"A 'little' is an understatement. She is a world-renowned fighter, Mercury: you are leagues apart." There was a playful hint in her tone that Pyrrha looked suspicious of. As if recognizing her agitation, Cinder turned to Pyrrha. "My apologies for my teammate's actions. I assure you, Miss Nikos, that he will be... reprimanded appropriately." Sensing the fight was over, the crowd had already begun to disperse.

"Are you friends with Pyrrha?" Blake suddenly asked. Adam realized that both he and Yang were glaring beside themselves at Cinder, the target of all their hatred.

"Oh, yeah, why do you ask?" Yang did not seem to notice that fact, bouncing back into a cheery smile for Blake.

"You two just looked... very upset at my teammates. They might seem a little off, but, they're good people." Blake smiled softly, but it faded in the wake of the silence that followed. Adam and Yang briefly glanced between one another.

"Hey, you know what, I'm starving! Why don't we grab something to eat? I'll call up Ruby and Weiss!" Yang abruptly changed the conversation. Blake's bow twitched in annoyance at hearing that Schnee's name.

"I think I'll pass." She started to walk over to her team leader when Yang casually threw an arm around her shoulder. Blake tensed up and glared at Yang, only getting a grin from her in return.

"How about just the three of us, then?" Blake continued to glare at Yang for a moment, but her eyes began to soften. A pang of guilt struck her as she realized that she probably just wanted to know her a little better. Knowing full well what getting close to someone else could entail, Blake sighed and put on a smile.

"Fine. Go ahead and call your teammates, too." As the three departed with the last remnants of the watching students, they did not notice the eyes of Blake's teammates following them closely. Cinder smiled slyly and nodded for Mercury and Emerald to follow.

* * *

"It's polarity," Mercury told Cinder the moment the three were in their room. "But she's clever about it. The moment she touched my boots she was able to move them around however she wanted. She only made slight adjustments." He wasted no time in drawing out a comic book from their shelf and sitting down on his bed.

"Just enough so that she _looks_ untouchable." Emerald took a seat on the foot of Mercury's bed. "Her opponents don't know her Semblance, which puts them at a disadvantage."

"Hm... people assume she is fated for victory, when she's really taken fate into her own hands. Interesting, and admirable..." Cinder smirked.

Her apprentice's gaze locked onto her own. "And familiar," Emerald added.

Their leader nodded as she drew out her Scroll. "Add her to the list." As Cinder scanned through her own Scroll, Emerald added Pyrrha on her own.

"If she can fight that well with only light uses of her Semblance, who knows how threatening she can be with it in full force. I'm sure you could take her, though," Mercury assured Cinder.

"Oh, Mercury..." Cinder sighed with a smile, pitying their lack of knowledge. "It is not about overpowering the enemy, it's about _taking away_ what power they have _._ " Her eyes amber eyes flared brightly and flickered from Mercury to Emerald: both must recognize this lesson. "There shall be no victory in strength... but, we will succeed. In time."

Groaning, he flopped back onto his bed and let the comic drop onto his face. "I hate waiting..."

" _Well,_ we may not have to wait much longer..." Without the ability to directly interfere, Cinder had taken to memorizing and reading as much on Beacon's security systems and their Scrolls alike as she could. When the time was right, she wanted to have her plans set without any wasted time. Imagine her surprise when a new access point was gained: General Ironwood's personal Scroll. And oh, the wealth of information she found...

A downright malicious smile crept across Cinder's visage as she stumbled upon one file in particular. A redheaded little girl named Penny—no, P.E.N.N.Y. An _android._

"We have our way into the system... Emerald, contact our faunus friends. Tell him I have a target. Tonight."

"Do you think he'll be able to gather the resources in time?"

Cinder tutted and handed her Scroll over to Emerald. The girl's eyes widened, and she jabbed Mercury's shoulder to get his attention, too. "He has no choice. After that terrible embarrassment yesterday, they'll be dying for retribution."

"Enough for a suicide mission?"

"You overestimate him, you really do..." Cinder strolled to the window, looking down upon the students from her perch. Her eyes fell onto two in particular: their faunus 'teammate', and the red-haired ex-officer she tried her hardest to abandon. "All I need to do is give him another target he can't refuse..."

Two could play at this game: if RWAY believed they could strike at her plans and go unpunished simply because there was no definite proof they were targeting her in particular... well, then there would just have to be a punishment with no definite proof it was because of _her._ All they'd need is a little birdie to tell Almond where the leader he was once so loyal to was.

Or, a little cheetah, in this case...

* * *

After spending enough time where every night could herald a killer coming for your head, one learned to train their instincts to the point where even if they did not know the cause, they knew they were in danger. That night, as Adam's eyes suddenly snapped open, it was that instinct that screamed at him. The room was completely silent as he looked around, wind felt but not heard as it left the curtains fluttering in the cracked window. His hand reached for his weapon of its own accord. Something was wrong, _terribly_ wrong. Adam quietly called for Weiss.

No sound left his lips.

That instinct flared to new heights, and without thinking Adam flung himself from his bed and slammed into the ground, just in time to see the pillow he rested his head on—and half of the bed—explode in a silent flash of fire, light and force. His eyes turned to the window, now shattered.

They were under attack.

* * *

 **A/N: And here we go. I admit this chapter's a bit dryer than most, but don't worry, the next couple should hopefully make up for all of that.  
**

 **While Goodwitch could probably repair the roads and more major damage to the communications room that Adam/Yang/Cinder left behind, I have a feeling that she might not be able to, say, repair every terminal and computer system they crashed into. As such, they need to hide that.**

 **The change of when Cinder found out about Penny is, in fact, a direct change caused by Adam's arrival: since they followed behind Cinder much more closely, they could interrupt her program before it finished downloading. They have the equivalent of spyware in Beacon's systems, but, enough to control it? Not at all... not yet, anyway...**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	36. V2: No Sanctuary

**No Sanctuary**

* * *

Splinters and ash whipped across Adam's face and cut thin furrows into his cheeks and arms as he rolled onto the ground of their dorm. His aura rushed to life, briefly casting the room in crimson light as it healed even those minor scratches. Flames still burned silently on his bed, quickly turning the wood black and spreading upwards towards the pale figure blearily shifting on her own. Adam had barely even gotten to his feet before he leaped up and kicked off of the burning bunk bed, yanking Weiss towards him just before another burst of explosive fire tore through the air and shredded it. The wall behind the beds crumbled: faint silhouettes of students still sleeping safe and sound in the dorm over were visible on the other side.

Weiss snapped awake as the two tumbled onto the ground, eyes rapidly searching the room until they fell on Adam holding her down. His eyes focused on the window, Adam did not even notice her silent shouts of confusion and anger until he'd turned to Yang and Ruby's beds. By then, the scent of burnt Dust and heated glow had become obvious to the heiress. The shots striking the wall at such an angle meant that the shooter was to their left: right now they were out of sight. He had seconds to think. _Seconds_ being the keyword.

Barely noticing Weiss worriedly bringing a hand to her ear, Adam jumped to his feet and hurriedly jabbed Yang in the side with his sheathed weapon. She hadn't even opened her eyes before he drew his blade and slashed the lower ropes holding Ruby's bed up. Getting whacked and seeing the end of a bed rushing towards her was enough to get Yang to throw herself onto the ground, but Ruby was left painfully tumbling end-over-end until she hit the floor. She tore her blindfold off to find Adam pressed up against the wall, glaring outside the window, and half of their entire dorm in burnt rubble.

A faint glint of light a building away. A sniper. Adam tried to focus, but, while in daytime his faunus eyes may have been able to identify him, he was not so lucky at night. He looked down upon the three girls to find their lips moving and their hands patting around their ears and throats, but no words came out. Slowly, in this brief calm, all four of them realized just how silent it was. No words. No gunfire. No burning of flames or whistling of wind. There was no ringing or buzzing that would have come from being so close to an explosion, in fact, there was no sound at all. Even the beating of their hearts was just a faint, unheard pulse in their chest.

Yang took a deep breath and tried to shout as loud as she could. Nothing.

Absolute silence.

Adam's grip on Wilt tightened, and his eyes flared crimson. He knew this Semblance well. It was one of their branch's assassins. Here, in _Beacon._ If he was waiting to fire, it also meant that this attack was no mere coincidence—no part of a greater assault on the dorms or Academy. They knew who he was and were hunting him down just like they did Tukson... and just like they could Blake.

Weiss looked up to Adam, still keeping low, and carefully mouthed: _"What is happening?"_

 _"White Fang."_ He drew his blade and pointed it towards the door. _"Go._ " Ruby had begun to call something in response, only to bite her lip and shake her head. Just in front of her, Yang nodded in agreement with Ruby's defiance, and Weiss' glare unfortunately meant she, too, had no intention of leaving. Scowling, Adam angrily swiped his blade at the ground and jabbed his rifle towards the door again: both an insistence that they leave, and a clear sign that he was the only one here who had his weapon. Against firepower like that, trying to fight with their bare hands and Semblances alone would have them killed. More importantly...

Adam tapped his chest with the hilt: this was _his_ fight. If the White Fang had come to attack him, then it was his responsibility to kill this assassin. No other would be hurt because of his failures to better take this into account. The sisters' expressions softened into resignation, yet, though Weiss nodded in apparent understanding, her eyes gleamed with the same defiance they had before. He whipped his blade at the air, a red wave slashing through the door and leaving the escape open for them.

Another explosion enveloped the wall closest to Ruby. The assailant was getting impatient. So, he really was here for him. Without a word, Adam leaped from the window and landed on the brick path stretching from the dorm. Trees lined the sides, leading up to the main road. With no sound to guide him, he could only slowly scan across rooftops and trees, hand tight around the hilt of his weapon. Adam scowled as the wind blew against him: a thin, red T-shirt and black sweatpants were not exactly what he considered 'combat gear', especially during a cold night like this. He had one clip's worth of ammunition, no more.

One of the trees' branches twitched the wrong way. Adam sent a wave of crimson aura through it in the blink of an eye, but, nothing happened. His instincts flared up, warning him of someone behind him. He spun around and found his target waiting for him on the road.

Enforcer. Bouncer. Brawler. All were terms that would describe what most believed Tacet Avalanche to be on first appearance. 'Assassin' was likely the last. A mass of muscle standing at 6"10, even when clad in an all-black variant of the White Fang's usual attire and a blackened visor with green lenses that could amplify his sight to their limit, Tacet was not stealthy. His weapon was even less so: a blocky, heavy assault rifle with a black blade curving along its top with a space only for its scope. Every shot was a .50 caliber, concentrated red Dust cartridge. Normally, even one shot should've alerted half of Beacon Academy.

That was where his Semblance came in. An aura of total silence.

 _"It's been a long time, hasn't it, Tacet?"_ Adam spoke, even though he could not hear his own words. Two bat ears poking out from Tacet's hood twitched, and he rumbled with quiet laughter.

The two slowly began to circle one another, searching for any weakness that would prove fatal. Adam's blade clicked open just as the assassin suddenly brought his rifle up and fired. A wall of ice suddenly sprung up between them, half of it shattered just as quickly as it was created, melting away into mist.

Still clad in her nightgown, Weiss twirled from the window of the dorm to a stop beside Adam, each of her hands glowing faintly with a crystal of Dust within them: one a faint blue, the other gleaming white. The two looked between one another, Weiss' eyes challenging Adam to refuse her help. Adam's eyes narrowed and a scowl marred his face, but, his attention was forced back up as the rest of the wall was blown away. The assassin looked upon his two marks in mere nightclothes believing that they stood a chance against him.

Tacet grinned viciously. The heiress to the SDC and the greatest traitor of the White Fang both in one place. This was a gift from the gods themselves!

* * *

Cinder peeked out from the curtains of her dormitory, eyes trained on the brief flashes occurring from afar. Wonderful, the operation was going smoothly. With a nod back at Emerald and Mercury wide awake and sitting on their beds, Cinder drew out her Scroll and sent a simple text. Mercury and Emerald followed suit.

All across Beacon, Scrolls flashed and rumbled, and their owners placed on the masks of the Grimm. Some did so with tribulation, others with excitement, but, all did so the same.

The second phase of their operation commenced.

* * *

A bright-blue shield shuddered yet blocked the explosive gunfire from Tacet, giving Adam the time he needed to dart away from the protection and straight towards the assassin. Wilt's crimson blade drew sparks against the cutting edge of the Fang member's weapon, but Adam was still forced back by his sheer strength. Another burst of gunfire kept him from advancing: he may have been able to cut each bullet from the skies, but the explosions rippling out still chipped away at his aura.

Dodging a rain of icy spikes from above, the assassin aimed down at his own feet and fired, sending him flying towards Adam. He dropped his grip to the stock and swung hard for Adam. Tunnel visioning on the traitorous ex-major was his mistake, however: he did not notice the line of glyphs stretching towards him until he was already launched off onto the main road by a vicious stab. Standing beside Adam once more, Weiss waved an icy rapier down in challenge, white Dust rising constantly off of its surface.

Tacet, however, had the advantage of range: he was perfectly fine with remaining back and forcing the two to come with him. The two partners weaved in and out of explosive fire, cold air constantly replaced with flashes of heat until they were upon him at once. With Weiss peppering away with stabs at his right and Adam's sword lashing out with enough speed to only be blurs in the air to his left, the assassin was pressed back further and further, fending off Weiss with his bare hand and keeping his gun steady to deflect Adam's strikes. One final shot forced Weiss to leap closer to Adam.

It was just what Tacet was waiting for: he spun his assault rifle around him, let it expand out into a long glaive and struck Weiss with a mighty swing, shattering her rapier and leaving the blade grinding against her aura. The barrel tilted back in the same instance, and a gunshot gave his cleave the strength to send her barreling into Adam hard enough to leave them tumbling across the ground. Weiss clutched her side with a hiss as the two of them forced themselves back up, only to find that Tacet... wasn't there. In his place was only an empty magazine and a darkened crater. Only by chance did Adam notice the shadow moving across the brick and grass. His eyes turned to sky just as the assassin reached the peak of his insane leap, glaive raised high.

Tacet's ears twitched.

He suddenly turned and fired seemingly blindly back at the dorm as he fell. Weiss and Adam followed the path of the gunfire. It was a barrage of six rocket lockers raining down from the sky. Explosions filled the air like flak, destroying one in its entirety, but it wasn't enough to keep another from smashing him into the dirt. He remained still beneath it.

Beaten and burnt lockers slammed and embedded themselves in grass and road alike. Two metal doors burst out, and both Ruby and Yang shakily stumbled out of them, covered in both kinds of dust, with weapons in—on, in Yang's case—hand and with giant grins. Yang took one look at the collapsed assassin and crossed her arms, aiming a smug smirk right at Adam. With Tacet indisposed, he stormed forward, waving his hand back to the dorm and demanding to know why they were here in the first place. Why they would do something so _insane_?

Silence still reigned.

One of the trees' branches twitched the wrong way yet again. Adam barely had time to turn before a flurry of tiny rockets rained down from it. Light and smoke filled their vision while the world shook and shrapnel slashed across their aura. By the time it'd faded, the tree was aflame. He turned to Weiss and found her surrounded by small craters and a fading shield, gasping for breath and leaning up against her locker for support. Her strained aura briefly faded in and out of sight. There must've been two assailants.

Just as that thought occurred to Adam, the ground erupted in front of Weiss and Ruby both. Without thinking, Yang and Adam rushed towards their respective partners. Weiss' eyes widened as not a weapon or rocket, but a faunus sprung from the ground, metal claws over his hands reaching for her. She refused to be taken down in yet another battle, let alone by a mere grunt like this. Summoning all the strength she could, a split-second before the White Fang member reached her, Weiss summoned a massive plume of frost and ice, in front of her. Two of the 'fingers' of the Fang member's claws fired out as rockets past Weiss and exploded harmlessly as his momentum—and the entire lower half of his body—froze solid.

So close, the Fang member could still launch the rest of his gleaming claws, but, it would no doubt catch him in the explosion as well. Weiss could see his claws lowering, whether in preparation to fire anyway or to surrender. She'd never know his intentions.

Weeping crimson, Wilt suddenly shot into view, spearing clean through his neck. Chestnut-brown aura shone and flickered from the wound, the Fang member left grasping desperately at it the moment Adam's blade left him. Trembling briefly from the sudden brutality, Weiss turned to Adam, and found not red eyes but a cold, dispassionate emerald. Adam whipped the grunt's blood away with a flick of his blade and, its red glow fading, sheathed Wilt. Pale, the Fang member slipped into unconsciousness, all of his remaining aura and energy—however thin—being spent on keeping him alive.

Adam did not even spare him a glance. Not even to see if he still lived. He took a step towards Weiss, offered his hand and, for the first time in many weeks, all she could see was the pale mask of the White Fang instead of his eyes. She remembered just who Adam was, for better or for worse: a former terrorist. A cold-blooded killer. She took a step back and was shocked back to reality by her back hitting the cold metal of the locker. Adam looked at her strangely with an unreadable expression before he looked off to his side.

Her eyes followed him to the second Fang member, a teen perhaps her age with identical weapons and the tail of a chipmunk, fighting a losing battle against both Ruby and Yang. His only means of survival was suddenly dropping through the ground as if it were water and springing up from another angle. With more blows being taken by the second, he suddenly backflipped and plunged into the dirt again. This time, he remained there. While Weiss slowly regained her aura, she wondered why he did not just escape: surely the White Fang was not that suicidal.

The answer came to her as a flash of light from above drew her gaze to the locker which pinned their assassin to the ground. He wasn't there.

* * *

Aura is considered by experts across Remnant to be the most powerful source of energy in the world, passing even Dust by miles. In the hands of experts, it can turn dulled sticks as sharp as scalpels, and skin as strong as steel. This defensive field, however, does not make one invincible: though it can protect against lethal blows, aura is only truly strong when pared with the dodging and deflecting of skill and armor, extending even meager amounts long enough to survive. Enough force to an unprotected vital region can obliterate even the strongest of auras. After all, the weaker the region beneath the soul's manifestation, the more power it would expend to protect it. Luckily, it was rare indeed for any huntsman or huntress to be caught gravely off-guard.

When Tacet silently dropped from the skies with a gun-propelled swing, Yang was gravely off-guard. His glaive crashed into her neck and collarbone hard enough to cause an eruption of flame and golden light. When it had ended, Yang lay unconscious, even her massive stores of aura unable to withstand such a blow. The massive assassin twirled his glaive and stalked closer along the grass, grinning massively.

The three remaining teammates were still, disbelieving that _Yang_ of all people had been crushed. Tacet, however, had no qualms with killing even during their shock: he shifted his glaive back to its assault rifle form and aimed it squarely at Yang's head.

Tacet's ears twitched.

He spun on a dime, opening fire and ripping open the earth where Ruby was not just a moment prior, rose petals chasing behind her as she screamed and zig-zagged her way up to the assassin. She twirled her scythe around herself, threw all of her weight behind it and was suddenly tackled by the lesser Fang soldier to the ground. Ruby hissed silently: it was easy for her to wriggle out of his grip, and even easier to bat him off towards the main road. As Ruby descended on him, again, she noticed him beginning to panic and sweat. That just meant she made the right call: they'd only been burrowing through soft dirt, so far!

Behind them, Weiss finally put everything together: this assassin could hear them even though they couldn't! He must've been immune to his own effect... and wouldn't expect anyone else to know that. With Tacet's back turned to them, she raced towards the assassin with Adam to her right and called out as if just on instinct, _"Adam, take his left,_ I'll _take the right!"_

Tacet's ears twitched.

The assassin took the bait, transforming his gun back into its glaive form and swinging for where he thought the weakened heiress to be, but only having Adam draw Wilt and block it for all his troubles. Weiss vaulted herself over Adam, twirling above them both before gracefully dropping down on one knee with her rapier jammed into Tacet's weapon, encasing it in a block of ice. A frightened scowl shot across the assassin's face and only deepened when Adam aimed Blush right beside his ear. Behind his mask, his eyes widened.

Adam grinned madly and pulled the trigger. For just the briefest moment, they could hear the cold wind buffeting them, the echo of the gunshot in the plaza, the faintest, rumbling scream building up in the assassin's throat. Just as quickly as it had come, it was gone, leaving Tacet's roars and furious shouts of pain without sound as he thrashed and flailed hard enough to shatter the ice trapping his weapon. Weiss and Adam briefly leaped back as he stumbled about and swung his glaive behind him, ready to fire and leap into the skies again.

A bright flash erupted from just behind his leg, forcing him onto his knees instead. His glaive clattered to the ground, and his aura began to flicker: an inky black only visible across his pale mask and face.

 _"Payback's a bitch..."_ Lying behind the falling assassin, gauntlet still smoking, Yang let out a hoarse chuckle heard only by the very one she attacked and slipped back into unconsciousness.

Tacet looked for his remaining ally, only to find him getting struck down for the last time by Ruby; stranded on brick and stone, he hadn't stood a chance. The assassin glared through his mask over at the only two assailants. With the blonde one down and the heiress collapsed and barely holding herself up with her rapier, it could not be said he did not put up a good fight. But that did not excuse his failure to kill the heiress. Nor did it excuse his failure to kill _**him.**_

He focused on Adam in the silence: Captain Almond demanded his return alive, but, surely, he would not have minded a simple mistake. Someone like him did not deserve to be captured. He was nothing but a—

 _"TRAITOR!"_ The assassin barked viciously. Adam stared dispassionately at him, giving no answer even when he knew that Tacet could hear everything he said. He lifted his rifle. Blush spoke three times, for him.

* * *

Even the slightest breeze was a howl in Adam's ear as Tacet's Semblance faded. Flames roared and crackled across branches and grass both. The desperate attempts of all four of them still conscious to catch their breath filled the air. His heartbeat thumped against his chest like the drums of war, pulsing against his ears and driving his thoughts deeper into wrath. Tacet's aura flickered and slithered across him before vanishing entirely.

"I always knew you were too attached to that Belladonna girl for your own good, but, this? Not just protecting her, but humans? _Schnees?!_ How can anyone fall this low! You've forgotten everything!" Tacet cried out at Adam as he stalked closer, slowly spinning Wilt in his hand. Red bled into his emerald irises: the anger at his team having come to help him instead found itself focused entirely on the one who dared attack them. Right now, the threat against his own life was the last thing on his mind.

"Do you really think you can scare me? Leading around your troop of little girls in pajamas? Do they even know what command you respected before? What you did to earn your place?" Adam's aura began to rise, glimmering across his blade like freshly-drawn blood. His grip tightened on Wilt enough to pain him even through his strengthened field.

Tacet only ranted on, not realizing that his words were falling upon deaf ears. He may as well have been returned to the world of his Semblance. "The only reason they've forgiven you is because they don't know. Even your precious Belladonna doesn't. And when your pathetic attempts to keep me trapped fail, and when I escape, I'll make sure they do, _Major Taurus._ Bet on—"

 **"Silence."** Tacet's words turned to ash on his tongue. Adam brought Wilt's tip to the center of his throat, silently daring him to speak again. He wanted nothing more right now than to finish the job and drive his sword through him. Tacet deserved to suffer for hurting those he held dear, and the thought of what would have happened if his sneak attack from the skies had struck anyone but Yang turned a mere desire into cries and demands in his mind to do just that.

But one thing—just one—kept him from taking Tacet's life in cold blood. He stared beyond the assassin, where Ruby stood just a few feet away. No words were shared. Staring fearfully at him, Ruby just slowly shook her head. There was no doubt in his mind that Blake would have done the same. Adam knew this because she was there, in this exact situation, once before, with his blade at a surrendering assailant's throat. Back then, he had done so anyway. It was the beginning of the dark spiral that led him to this very moment. To tear Ruby's innocence apart by murdering him here while he could not respond would be unforgivable.

As his crimson gaze back onto Tacet, a slim smirk spread across Adam's face.

Which was why he would kill him in 'self-defense'.

"Listen very closely, Tacet. You will not mistake this as mercy. Nor will you mistake this as weakness. The simple fact of the matter is that a cretin like you is not even worth staining my blade." Did he _really_ think he was clever enough to hide his preparations for betrayal? The ears of a human could not tell, but his enhanced senses made the muted nature of the world all too evident. Perhaps it was how the air would only whistle past his ears when the wind blew harder than usual, or the hissing of flame sounding muffled and suffocated. Perhaps it was simply how it felt like they were stifled and trapped in just a small bubble of space, but it all meant the same: Tacet's Semblance of absolute silence never fell, only weakened.

"Whether or not you escape alive is of no consequence, to me." Adam brought the tip of his weapon up to Tacet's chin, forcing him to look at him. The faint, black warping around the tip of his glowing blade proved the same: his aura had not shattered, either. It could still try to resist the piercing of his willpower. A cold, hateful light rose around him.

"But hear this: if I ever see you again, if I ever _hear_ from you again, if you ever so much as think of harming my teammates or any of my friends again, I will find you." That pit of hate in his heart must have never gone away, Adam thought. Such would be the only reason why he was smiling when flicking Wilt away from Tacet's neck caused him to flinch. To remember the monster he once was. This realization had far less of an effect on him than he thought it would: it was justice, after all. Justice for daring to harm those close to him.

"And I will make it my mission to destroy _everything_ you love." He sheathed his blade and left his negativity to bare down upon Tacet like the weight of the world. Adam knew: he had failed. His choices were to return to Almond and report his grave loss, or remain outside the Fang, wait to fight him again, and invoke his wrath... and there was no guarantee he would not be sent back. Tacet was a trapped rat, now.

And as Adam turned and walked away, he found himself smiling.

He had only one choice left.

* * *

Yet again, Weiss found herself on the brink of total exhaustion. She cursed herself: twice in only a few days, and three, overall! The opposition had fallen, but, how long would it be before she would be fatigued and them still strong? There was still so much work to be done...

She shakily tried to drag herself up onto her feet with Myrtenaster as leverage, but failed yet again and collapsed onto her knees. Weiss tried to focus on the assassin and Adam ahead, ready to force out every last drop of her strength if anyone else was in danger. It was only as she tried to focus on what the two were saying that Weiss had even realized sound had returned to her. A flare of red sent a chill down her spine.

 _"And I will make it my mission to destroy_ everything _you love."_ Yet another reminder of Adam once was, just like his cold-blooded strike on the other Fang member. She frowned and focused her sight on him: was this simply what he was always like? Hiding it for their sake? If his hatred had never faded... it was not a path she wanted to mentally travel down.

When he turned around, Weiss was _forced_ onto it. The fury in his still-crimson eyes, the manic smile wide enough to show the smallest glint of teeth, the burning glow still surrounding him. He looked like a different person altogether.

He looked like someone deserving of being called a terrorist.

But, when the silence suddenly wrapped around them again, bright-red rose petals rushed up around them both and Tacet leaped forward with mouth open in a soundless howl, that title burned away from Weiss' mind. No, with bestial eyes wide with terrific excitement and the most wicked, vicious grin Weiss had ever seen in her life, the Adam that drew his blade and whirled around to strike at Tacet was not a terrorist at all.

The world was drenched in red, all cast in shadows. A wave of wilting rose petals and aura twisted into killing instinct slammed into Weiss, and she finally passed out with that wretched grin burned into her mind. A grin whose pleasure was borne from suffering.

The grin of a monster.

* * *

 **A/N: Surprise, Adam's still not _entirely_ a good person. Perhaps, had he lost everything in this timeline, he would have begun the slow descent into the more monstrous, canon Adam. **

**... Alright, maybe not _that_ far, but certainly to a more sadistic, evil place. Changes from someone who was only a couple steps away from becoming _that_ to a legitimately good person takes time.  
**

 **Fun facts: Tacet Avalanche is a bat faunus who has trained his aura to hear sounds so quiet that he can barely stand the noise of the real world. His Semblance of absolute silence is not _entirely_ absolute, simply so close that only he can hear sounds that muffled. His weapon is an ASh-12.7 battle rifle that can shift into a glaive.**

 **His two partners were chipmunk twins. Their Semblances were the ability to burrow through soft earth with extreme ease and speed.**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	37. V2: Blood is Red Like Roses

**Blood is Red Like Roses**

* * *

The first thing they heard were the screams.

Sharp and almost deafening after so much time with the muted noise, they echoed throughout Beacon interspersed with the unmistakable report of gunfire and explosions. Tacet's fallen halves faded into wilting rose petals before they'd even struck the ground, whirling away in a silent storm of death befitting the assassin. Behind the cloud of petals, Ruby stood horrified, frozen with her eyes locked onto Adam's. Blood, hot and bright splashed across her, so vibrant against both her pale skin and the metal of her scythe before it, too, peeled away into petals and vanished away.

It was as if Tacet had never existed.

Adam's lips parted, but words refused to form. Ruby's horror was reflected in his own eyes, though for far different reasons. The arctic cold of reality sank in, and it became all too clear that even though he afforded himself rationality in his fury, it was not enough to think his actions through. This was not how it was supposed to go. It was so simple, at the time: a killing in self-defense would be neither as scarring nor as horrid as slaying him in cold blood no matter how much he deserved it. Ruby was not supposed to get so close. She wasn't meant to...

He caught himself just as his hand began to shake. No. He could not show weakness, not after what he had done. The blood on his blade long since faded, Adam slowly sheathed it and stood tall above Ruby. It was now that the source of the screams truly sank in: he was wrong about his former belief that it was an assassination attempt solely on him and his team. This _was_ a greater assault... and yet, there was far less chaos than he would have anticipated.

"Ruby, find somewhere safe for Yang and Weiss." She had begun trembling, now, eyes shining bright and gleaming with the beginnings of tears while she tried to stumble back. His words were falling on deaf ears. Frowning, he stepped closer over their assailant's 'resting place' and grabbed Ruby's shoulder. "Ruby!" She jolted, eyes suddenly darting everywhere as if she had just regained her hearing, as well.

"Listen to me: you need to get Yang and Weiss somewhere they cannot be harmed. JNPR should be awake, now. Go to them, and remain out of sight."

"Y-yeah, alright. I'll bring them to JNPR and join back up with you."

"Wrong!" He snarled louder than he intended, and Ruby winced. "You've done enough, here. This was my mistake." Adam turned away and his aura pouring into his senses, searched for the closest battle.

"This is my fight too, Adam!" It only made Ruby's complaint louder. "It might be _your_ old allies but this is _our_ school!"

"But it will be _your_ life at stake," He bit back.

"Don't you think I know that! I... I'm a Huntress-in-Training, and as _team leader_ I think I can decide whether or not I want to do my own job." Adam turned back to reply, but Ruby already cut off his inevitable counter: "Even if I have to fight people who only want to kill us."

"... You're not ready." Adam's voice was as weak as his retort. Even so, the halfhearted response was enough to have Ruby's eyes burning with determination.

"I don't need to be protected." They were burning with tears, as well.

"I beg to differ—"

"This conversation is over!" Ruby's shout actually left Adam shocked into silence. As if it just clicked who she'd shouted down, Ruby fumbled with her words for a moment before continuing on: "We... we don't have the time to argue, a-and _I_ am the leader. As the leader, I am ordering you to help bring Weiss and Yang inside, and then _both_ of us will be helping Beacon!" She folded her scythe and carried it under her arm as she walked past Adam to pick Weiss up.

"A... a leader must be ready to defend their position if they want to keep it." Adam's grip on his blade tightened at Ruby's words. His mouth was drawn into a fine line, eyes narrowed at Ruby while he tried his hardest to make himself unreadable. "And if you're questioning me, then I'm not gonna leave anything left for you _to_ question."

Though his mind roared at him not to listen, without a word, Adam relented and dragged Yang up. Normally, he would've been proud to have his words thrown back at him like this: for Ruby to learn what it meant to be a true leader. But, right now, he was the last person he wanted Ruby to learn from.

* * *

It was only as he and Ruby dispatched a third group of White Fang soldiers that they realized this was only the beginning of an even greater attack. The gunfire and shouting had escalated more until it felt like there was a full-on war inside of Beacon's borders, and one of three sides: Beacon's own students, the White Fang and, to Adam's surprise, his own class, bearing their black armbands proudly. Being faunus themselves, however, it made them appealing targets to the more spiteful of their human peers. Ruby had to prevent him from turning on the ones he was trying to protect more than once.

Now, rose petals trailed behind them both as they raced across the rooftops of Beacon for more people to save.

"I don't get it, why are they doing this?" Ruby shouted as they paused on the edge of a building and scanned the area. The attacks were spread out far, where small trails of smoke rose up almost anywhere they turned. Adam narrowed his eyes and gripped his blade tighter. This happening immediately after taking down Torchwick, embarrassing the White Fang and stopping Cinder did not leave many possibilities.

"Retaliation. Cinder could not directly link our attacks to being against only her, not enough to make good on her threat without the risk of us having not actually been targeting her. That happens, it's war."

"Isn't it war, already?"

"Not the kind that she knows would've happened if she killed Blake without reason. It wouldn't be this clean." Muffled shouts came up from below them. Adam knelled down and placed his hand on the roof, stretching his aura out to its limits to pinpoint the sounds.

"It's a brawl. At least ten on one side... five on the other." A stifled cry was cut short. "Four. Go through the windows, I'll take the roof entrance!" He sprinted off towards the rooftop door, leaving Ruby to strike from around the side. Adam sliced the door down and barreled through it, bounding down the stairway three steps at a time. He came to a stop in front of a long, familiar hall: it was another dormitory, filled with the scent of blood. Ruby's shout echoed through the dorm's halls as the lights flickered, and the sounds of battle began anew beneath him.

"I thought they said there'd be no sound!" A woman's voice drew Adam's attention to one door in particular that looked like it was kicked down. He brought his hand to his hilt and crept closer, ready to strike down any Fang member who stepped out. Adam cared little for collateral, even less for assassination and destruction wrought down on those who oppressed the faunus... but, to come here and murder teenagers—students—in their beds? Even he drew a line, somewhere.

They would live if they were lucky.

Another student was thrown out of the room, crashing against the wall and leaving a streak of red as he slumped down, groaning. He wasn't dead, but, consciousness was slipping from him. Adam narrowed his eyes: he seemed familiar, somehow, yet he couldn't put his finger on it. However, when a broken, metal staff was haphazardly thrown at him and a girl with dual short swords stepped out from the door, he remembered.

Her cheetah ears twitched, and she turned to face the new intruder, the pale mask of the White Fang gleaming on her face.

Adam snorted. "Well, isn't this an unpleasant surprise." The girl was joined by two other new recruits: both, Adam could recognize from his class. They said nothing, only staring on. "What's wrong, cat got your tongue? Is there a reason why I find my 'students' assisting on an attack on their own?"

"They're not 'our own'!" The girl hissed. "Those humans are anything but, and tonight we're going to teach them and all of Vale just that!"

"By assaulting the..." The part of him that still sympathized with the revolution refused to let him call the human he saw getting ready to assault that very girl long ago 'innocent'. "Students of Beacon?"

"They knew what they came here for: if they want to die supporting a regime that oppresses the faunus, why wait until they graduate?"

Adam scoffed. "I taught you better than that, Chiffon."

"You taught us to stand up for ourselves!" Chiffon stomped her foot and motioned to her surroundings. "This is exactly what we're doing! We can finally do something without needing to go through this stupid academy training our enemies just as well as us." The girl let out a sigh and looked up with a saddened smile. "Maybe you can't understand because you're a human, but, we have to make our way as faunus somehow, even through fear."

She was an optimist, Adam could clearly see. Someone who was sick and tired of being stomped down by the human ruling class and decided to fight tooth and nail for the mere possibility of equality. It was something he still sympathized with and understood. He let out a mirthless chuckle and tapped his horns, so easy to see as merely dyed hair from afar.

"Human. Right."

The three recruits slowly lowered their weapons in shock. With a nervous laugh, the cheetah faunus walked towards him. "W-we just assumed... Ha! This... this is great! We would've told you if we knew you were one of us! Please, Adam, I'm sure Captain Almond could explain everything better than we could: you'd be invaluable to us!" Her steps slowed as she noticed his hand drifting towards the hilt of his blade.

"I know. I was one of its leaders." The three recruits froze. Adam snorted. "There is no point in trying to hide that fact from you or anyone else in the White Fang. Ask Captain Almond himself if you do not believe me. Ask him about Major Taurus." Though he could not see their eyes, Adam could _feel_ their confusion and fear.

"Why did you leave?"

"Someone close to me made me realize I was leading it down a path of destruction and hatred." Silence filled the gaps, interspersed with short bursts of activity and shouting from below as Ruby's fight came to an end. They were running out of time.

 _"... Hypocrite,"_ One of the faunus beside Chiffon whispered. When Adam's eyes fell upon him, rather than be cowed, he gained more courage. "You're a hypocrite! How could you teach us to stand up for ourselves as faunus while you ran from your own revolution and hid under that damned hat! You tell us to fight for what's right, and then try to stop us from our joining our _only chance_ _at equality_ while you _pretend_ to be human? While you hide from what we face every day! Why should we listen to a word you say!" He shouted. As the last grunts and thumps of unconscious soldiers echoed through the floor, Adam stared down the snarling, livid new recruit of the White Fang, and realized something.

He was right. As much as he wanted to pretend that, in time, he and Blake would return to change the White Fang, that objective felt further and further away with each day. The White Fang would be all they'd have... no, _is_ all they have: there would be no way for them to return to Beacon, now. Not with witnesses of their attacks. Adam looked down at his sheathed blade.

He'd surrendered his own authority over the faunus when he abandoned them.

"I taught you to use your strength, not fear, to force humanity to treat you as equals. Perhaps, you will learn why I told you that." He clicked his blade open and drew from his own aura to build up his Semblance and create a crimson glow around him. The recruits shakily rose their weapons.

"But, right now, you are all dead." Wilt lashed out in an instant, drowning their sight in red. He sheathed his weapon just as quickly, as not the recruits, but the wall beside them collapsed into rose petals, and the world returned to normal. "I have now killed you," Adam spoke casually to the shocked trio and began walking towards them.

"I will inform the Headmaster of your unfortunate demise at my hands. You will be free to do what you wish," Stunned and confused, they shakily stepped out of Adam's way as he walked past them. "But, you must promise me this: if the White Fang has sunken to the level of humans, you _**will**_ leave immediately." They blearily nodded. Optimists, all three: they likely had not even the slightest clue what path they were on. "Good. Now, escape. You don't have much time."

The three had barely escaped through the ruined wall when Ruby threw open the door at the far end of the hall. He'd been so willing to sit back and watch the White Fang, yet besides just stopping their schemes, he never tried to take them back. He never tried to give the faunus another way out... and while he hid under the mask of a human, no less. Foolishness.

Once this was over, there would need to be changes made to his morning class...

* * *

High above the miniature war in Beacon, Headmaster Ozpin glared hatefully down at the plumes of smoke and heat outside the windows of Beacon Tower. Glynda was already dispatched to fix this horrid mess, but, he had believed that was enough when this was only one attack, not many. Exactly how the White Fang managed to get this far without him so much as hearing a single crack of gunfire, Ozpin did not know. Right now, that didn't matter. His students, his _people_ were dying because he could not keep them safe.

He flipped his grip on his cane's silver, embellished handle so that he could hold it like a rapier, its secondary handle curling over his fingers perfectly to be a guard. Ozpin gave it a test swing out once in front of him, and looked back out towards his academy. The White Fang needed to be reminded why he was the Headmaster, here.

Ozpin slipped his fingers over the trigger guard and pressed it down.

* * *

Ruby and Adam had just made their way back up to the room when a blinding light erupted from Beacon Tower. Waves of light and aura emanated from the tower, stretching out across the sky and dyeing the heavens a brilliant emerald. The clouds darkened and began to swirl above the tower itself, turning it into the eye of a storm. Lightning crackled and jumped between the clouds before Ozpin's voice boomed out from all directions.

 _ **"I am Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon! You, White Fang, dare to assault my academy? You will abandon your futile assault and surrender at once!"**_ Even this far away, aura crashed down onto Ruby and Adam, the former bringing her hands up to her ears, and the latter resisting the sudden urge to kneel from the pressure. The voice, so commanding and filled with a barely-hidden fury, sounded only faintly familiar to the two. It was nothing like the headmaster that they knew.

"Is that really the headmaster?!" Ruby called over the roar of air and thunder: both had noticed that the fighting had come to a very abrupt halt.

 _ **"You have been led astray and brought into a battle that you can never win!**_ _ ** _ **Lay down your weapons, and you will be shown mercy!**_ " **_Ozpin chastised them. The very air itself began to grow green with power exuded. Mutterings and cries of alarm began to spread across the campus, yet, somewhere, they heard shots fired once more. Without warning, a explosion of green energy lit up the night from that direction, leaving sparks and pops of light even after it vanished. All was quiet once more.

 _ **"Do not mistake my mercy for weakness! You have two minutes to make your decision."**_

Above, Bullheads of both Vale and Atlas crossed the emerald clouds as black splotches of paint and pale streaks of white against the sky. The gunfire stopped completely. It was unlikely that the assailants wouldn't run and simply allow themselves to be captured, but this skirmish, this Battle of Beacon, was over. Just like that. To see such influence and presence used to halt an entire battle was surreal, and utterly unimaginable. Somewhere in Adam's heart, however, he felt dread at the fighting finally being over.

Adam looked over to his side, where Ruby was staring solemnly off in the direction of their dorms, no doubt thinking the exact same thing. She trembled.

Now, they had to face the aftermath.

* * *

Ozpin released the handle, and the skies began to fade. He sighed softly to himself and flipped his cane back down to support him. Trembling slightly from exertion, he needed it, even on the short walk over to his chair. The skies had just begun to lose their color when Ozpin dropped down into his chair, and the elevator doors opened.

"I don't know what kind of defenses you _think_ you have, Ozpin," General Ironwood was shouting before he even got one foot out of the door. "But it's clearly not enough! That is _twice,_ now, Ozpin. Twice! Two days in a row where our security has been compromised by her forces!" He stormed towards Ozpin's desk, seemingly determined to outdo his own performance a few minutes prior in sheer anger.

"I have things under control, Ironwood," Ozpin tried to reassure him, but to no avail.

"Under control? We are being made _fools_ of. It is clear that if we do not show her what we are capable of then she will continue to walk all over us! Maybe you are content with having your Academy be seen as weak but I brought my army here for _security._ "

Ozpin gritted his teeth and bit down a much more spiteful retort. It was all too easy to burn bridges after getting a rush of power like that one: he ha to make sure it did not get to his head. "If we act too quickly, the only thing we will be capable of is frightening the city of Vale, and I think you know what that will bring."

"With all due respect, Ozpin, it's clear that she doesn't need the Grimm to threaten us. She still has the faunus, just as she always has."

"And with all due respect, Ironwood, the Grimm are and always will be her main weapon. Let us not waste countless lives from 'collateral damage' by instilling fear when we can instead better discern her true plan. Even the pawns cannot be sacrificed haphazardly."

Ironwood opened his mouth to reply, but his Scroll suddenly rang. Frowning, he looked down at Ozpin and, upon getting a nod of permission, answered it. Seconds passed, and he began to pale.

 _"What? Missing?!"_ He whispered and walked off towards the elevators. In the brief times Ozpin could see Ironwood's face as he paced to and fro, it'd looked like he had just been told one of his bases was attacked without a single survivor. The headmaster frowned, wondering just what was worrying him so greatly. He got his answer when Ironwood turned back to face him, all emotion wiped clean from his face.

"Tomorrow, I will be sending the Atlesian military to Mountain Glenn," He stated as fact. "We will eliminate the tendrils she's spread there and show her who the leaders of this world are."

"I don't believe our populace would take hearing of a military expedition stomping around our territory particularly well."

Ironwood grit his teeth and walked forward until he stood just at Ozpin's desk. "I have served you faithfully for years, Ozpin... so, just _once_ , I expect you to trust me."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Ironwood, is there something else that I need to know?"

"What you need to know, Ozpin," Ironwood hissed, "Is that _your_ students were not the only ones assaulted by these faunus terrorists. You can sacrifice all your pieces here at the Academy, but, when one of _my_ students are harmed, I will stop at nothing to fix what is wrong."

Ozpin tapped his fingers against his desk a few times, then sighed. He could not, in good conscience, either let one of Ironwood's students suffer for his mistakes or allow him to shatter the trust between their two kingdoms so easily. "And just who is this student?"

"Penny Poledina. She's been kidnapped by the White Fang."

* * *

 **A/N: Admittedly a slower, smaller chapter, but, I just could not think of much to fill it without dipping heavily into the next chapter. This one will unfortunately have to suffice as a resolution and a little bit of the buildup of the next one.**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.**


	38. V2: Two Cents

**Two Cents**

* * *

 _[Restarting. . .]_

 _"So, this is what the General has put all his hopes and dreams into... a synthetic killing machine disguised as an innocent little girl..."_ It was like watching herself from the outside, or from within a dream: though her vision was oddly dark, Penny could see someone tip her head up by her chin. Her eyes constantly refocused trying to make anything out of the woman's face, yet she had no control over her own body. It was not as though her limbs felt too heavy, they simply... refused to move. To recognize that she even wanted to move.

Her eyes continued to try and focus on the speaker, but to no avail: though her surroundings was clear, the woman in front of her was blurry.

 _"Such a shame... she does not even know her own purpose. How despicable of them."_ The mysterious woman let her head drop. A pair of heavy, black bracelets were clear as day, locked on her wrists. She didn't have any other restraints.

 _[Aura not detected. Secondary power system below 5%. Shutting down.]_

* * *

 _[Restarting. . .]  
_

 _"How's the new leg treatin'_ _you?"_ Her eyes recorded only a sky made of stone. She was laid down and moving somewhere, but Penny couldn't tell where she was headed, or where she was.

 _"Yeah, yeah, yuk it up, asshole."_ Dim white Dust crystals lined the dome of earth, laying down a faint, grungy light. Out of the corner of her eyes, men and women in black with white vests marched around with tools. Their faces were hidden by Grimm masks. White Fang.

 _"Hey, hey, no need to get so grouchy, gramps. I'm being serious, here."_ She'd heard that voice before. Somewhere in the visitor's dorms at Beacon? Beacon... her eyes slowly panned to look over herself again: those bracelets were still on her. She wanted to see Ruby and Weiss again. Were they alright, after the fight?

 _"Wow, you being serious? Might want to get that checked out, kid. Don't be stupid, I've got no reason to care about you, and you've got no reason to care about me. So why don't you just cut the crap, and... huh._ " Her sight grew more vibrant, and Penny found enough strength to shift her arm towards her pocket. Eerily, she felt no resistance, no heaviness, no fatigue. It simply moved. A warning flashed across her sight: Roman Torchwick identified. A priority two target.

 _"... Well. That changes things, doesn't it? 'Guess you'd know, then: would it be easier or harder if I just cut the other leg off?"_ A low, dry laugh came from beside her and suddenly faded. _"Now, what do we have here?"_ Penny had not even noticed that she had withdrawn her Scroll and had brought it to her contacts list. It didn't matter, for Torchwick casually snatched it from her hand. Her arm collapsed limply back onto the cold, hard surface of whatever she was being carted in on.

 _"A friend of Red's, huh? Isn't that interesting..."_

 _[Aura not detected. Secondary power system below 5%. Shutting down.]_

* * *

 _[Restarting. . . Power source detected, charging. . .]_

Her sight brightened and head jerked up as a wave of power struck her. Though she still had no conscious control, she had enough strength to look around more actively: a plain, white room. Plain, white lights. She was on a plain, white counter. A cell.

 _"My, my, the things they have done with my research..."_ Her head mechanically turned towards the source of the voice without her control. The alerts came strong enough to hurt her head, now, as he stepped forward.

 _"It's a pleasure to meet you, Penny Poledina. My name is Doctor Merlot, and you could consider me your... grandfather..."_

A priority _one_ target was her grandfather?

* * *

The first rays of the Sun had begun to break through the clouds, when Glynda, Ironwood and Ozpin met on exactly what to be done about the attack on Beacon. Though Ozpin had already come to his decision, he did not feel comfortable making it without first convening with his closest advisor. She was normally the one who provided a viewpoint that even he could admit he sorely lacked: a younger one. Though he would rarely, if ever, mention it, Ozpin often feared that viewing things through the eyes of one who'd lived as long as he could hamper his own decision making.

Glynda growled in frustration at Ironwood, both of whom stood behind him. "Why must your answer to everything be a show of military bravado?! You treat every situation like it's a contest of measuring di—"

"Glynda!" This was not one of those times.

"... Well, he does."

Ozpin sighed and turned his chair to face them. Ten minutes had gone by and the two of them had done nothing but argue with one another: Glynda believing that they needed to wait and not jump into what would undoubtedly be an expected counterattack, Ironwood believing nothing short of eradication of the enemy would suffice for the kidnapping of one of his students and an attack on Beacon's own. Perhaps only through luck, for all the casualties across the campus, there were only three recorded fatalities from the assault. All of them were those who were trying to defect to the White Fang.

He made his decision: "We will be assisting in the assault on Mountain Glenn."

Glynda looked on in disbelief. "Sir, you can't be serious!"

"Patience, Glynda. We will be assisting Ironwood, _but,_ I wish to try this my way, first."

"Ozpin, I refuse to wait even another day when we are all in danger—" Ironwood was cut off as Ozpin angrily rose from his chair. Even leaning heavily on his cane, his presence was enough to cow the general.

"We are _not_ waiting. You are a general, James, so tell me: when you prepare to go to war, which do you send in first? The flag bearers, or the scouts?" The two stared one another down for a moment before Ironwood relented.

"Who do you have in mind?"

* * *

Team RWAY was barely getting any sleep at all, that night. It was not for lack of trying, but the events of the battle hung over them like a miasma. Even Yang, who had simply heard of the events secondhand, was choked by the oppressive atmosphere any time she so much as closed her eyes. Having to sleep beneath an unfamiliar ceiling made it all the worse.

Unfamiliar. That was it.

An unfamiliar ceiling, an unfamiliar room, an unfamiliar bed, and an unfamiliar sister. Try as Ruby might, she couldn't hide her the sorrows lurking in her silver eyes from her big sister, but the fact that she did not even try to mention what had happened after she had passed out, even when they were alone, was just plain strange. When she listened closely enough, even as the first rays of the sun began to pour in at an unfamiliar angle, Yang could even faintly hear a sniffle echo in the dead silent room.

The fact that, somehow, the room managed to grow even more still afterwards told Yang that she was not the only one still awake. She hadn't seen Ruby this depressed since she had realized Summer wasn't ever coming back, and sometimes Yang even wondered if the true shock of that had ever sunk in. Yang just... wasn't _used_ to seeing Ruby so much as down for five minutes, let alone genuinely saddened and shocked. She had looked tired. Traumatized. And why wouldn't she, after what she'd seen?

Yang clutched her pillow, eyes briefly flashing red before she turned over to face what she was certain was the source of their sleeping troubles: Adam. Another unfamiliar partner. Sitting hunched over on his bed that he'd dragged over to the corner of the room, Adam did not even look tired, Wilt held tightly in his hand and eyes following even the slightest twitch of movement. Emerald, tired eyes met a lilac quickly growing red once more. Sitting watchful like a sentinel, in truth he might as well had been a shadow cast on all of them. It was different, knowing that his actions had a direct effect on them: that he could simply... murder someone so casually in front of Ruby.

He was unfamiliar in another way, as well: Yang had never seen him acting so... protective. Focused. If she didn't know any better, Yang might've even thought that something was gnawing away at him, too, but, her sympathy was lost after his actions.

She couldn't take it. Yang sat up in her bed, her glare sending an unspoken message to Adam: she'd handle watching the room. And yet, as Adam remained sitting and simply closed his eyes, Yang had the feeling that even then, none of them were going to get much sleep at all.

She was right.

* * *

Yang suddenly yelped as the remnants of her already-tattered sleep were destroyed by the alarm. All at once, the room burst into activity truly befitting those important enough to be targeted by assassins: Ruby screamed and threw her comforter at the window to cover it before paradoxically drawing and aiming Crescent Rose at the cloth, Weiss accidentally threw herself face-first on the ground and froze the clock with a glyph, and Adam had sprung up to his feet, Wilt pointed uselessly at the window and Blush aimed at the closed door.

Three seconds passed. Then ten. A tiny snicker made its way out from Yang, and that was all that was needed to have the entire team chuckling and giggling along at their own silliness. That is, until their gazes met, and the memories of the night prior crushed them back into an awkward silence. It stretched on for a few seconds longer as they dusted themselves off and settled back on their beds before Adam suddenly rose and strode to the door.

"I'll take the last shower," He mumbled in some attempt to get the events of the day started before slipping outside. The door shut, leaving the three girls to look to one another. Weiss silently got up and gathered her things for a shower, and then, there were only two. Knowing Yang was watching her closely, Ruby crawled back into bed almost immediately and slipped her blindfold back on to hide her eyes, but it did not let her evade her sister's worries.

"Ruby, are you doing alright, over there?" Yang asked before Ruby could fall back asleep.

A couple seconds passed before her sister answered and, even then, it was only a weak: "Yeah, I'm fine..."

A tiny frown tugged at Yang's lips, but, determined to at least get a smile out of Ruby, she plopped onto her sister's bed and put on a wide grin. "Ah, come on, sis, aren't you excited about today? It's our first mission as Huntresses! Not like you'd let me forget, or anything, from how many times you told me about it." She giggled and laid down next to her sister. "I bet we can still get the first mission briefing document or whatever it's called framed." Yang looked down at Ruby, but her blindfold remained on. So did her frown.

There was no response.

"We could even try to get a mission off the southeast like we planned..." Yang trailed off when even the possibility of saving the day didn't get so much as a twitch out of Ruby. She remembered how sad Ruby was about just how much the White Fang hated humanity, but... Yang had to admit to herself: dealing with people _hating_ you was something she didn't know how to deal with. She just naturally let that stuff flow right off of her, and Ruby just wasn't a 'hateable' person. She had her fair share of bullies for being antisocial and adoring weapons more than people, of course, but, no one detested her. It was just unfathomable!

Right then! Plan A it was!

"Rubes, come on, what happened? You know you can tell me anything, right?" She took the direct route. Ruby slowly raised her blindfold up and, for just a moment, Yang thought she could see the resistance waning in her silver eyes... before they dulled once more, and with a defeated sigh her sister turned away.

 _"I can't..."_ Yang resisted the urge to groan as she rolled onto her back. What was she missing, here!

"Well, I can't help ya if you won't tell me, but... whatever it is, Ruby, just remember, I'll always be around for you. No matter what." If it was she thought it was, then maybe Ruby just didn't want to bring her into it? Did she not want to be seen as too weak for being a little screwed up by someone getting killed _right in front of them_? But she was her big sister! She should've been able to talk to her about anything! Maybe, a part of her mind she despised piped up, Ruby thought that she wouldn't care about something like death. That she was too wild to understand her.

Yang squeezed her eyes shut as if that alone would empty out her thoughts, but, she couldn't deny that it was a possibility. So they needed someone controlled, yet passionate like Ruby who might be able to understand... and someone who at least has experienced this kind of thing before.

She sat up and looked over at the closed bathroom door, where the noise of the shower had just faded. Perfect.

* * *

Strategically placed red and white Dust crystals lit up one after the other, lighting the bathroom up a faint pink as heated air rushed across Weiss' hair, drying it in a way that only heiresses—or, in her case, extremely successful gamblers—could. More importantly, a way only they could _afford,_ too. She stretched herself out in the comfortable heat and looked to her Scroll sitting beside the sink. Something suddenly occurred to her: Penny! How could she be so terrible as to not check up on if her friend was doing alright? While her name was not on the casualty or fatality list, that simply did not excuse the lack of a call. Especially, Weiss thought as she recalled their poor team leader just outside, since she knew not all wounds were physical.

Weiss threw a towel around herself and grabbed her Scroll. A mere wave of her hand every so often was all she needed to change the direction of the wind and the heat placed behind it as she dialed Penny's number in. It only rang twice before it was picked up: cordial, Weiss liked that—

 _"Why hello there, Ice Queen!"_ Her face fell to one of terror grave enough that she could barely even recognize herself in the mirror.

"Torchwick," Weiss breathed out in shock. She felt like she was punched in the stomach.

* * *

"Oh-hokay, you're a little too young to be saying my name like that, Princess." Walking his way down the many halls of the only pristine building those animals could manage in their new base, Roman Torchwick smirked at the disgusted scoff from the other side of the line. His gait was unsteady, cane striking the ground harshly with each step: he was still getting used to that little number those rats did on him, but, he'd have to live with it.

 _"What do you want?! Why do you have Penny's phone?!"_ Weiss hissed.

Torchwick let out a dry, spiteful chuckle. "I had one of my little technicians scan the Scroll when she was wandering by and decided to see if the copy I built from it worked... Or I might've just nabbed the thing from her myself while she was unconscious. Fan-cy, by the way! Did you buy this for her, or was this from Atlas?" He commented facetiously.

 _"What have you done with Penny?"_ Oh, it was almost adorable how she was trying to hold back her panic. A little interesting as well, he thought, that she was keeping her voice down like that. He wondered if they were anywhere public. Torchwick gave a little nod to Emerald as they crossed paths, one that was only met with the roll of her eyes. He had to admit, she'd managed to get at least a _little_ respect from managing to pilfer his own lighter off of him. A little. That Semblance of hers was a cheap crutch, though.

"What have _I_ done? Way to be presumptuous! I haven't even touched her, honest. All I did was help see her off to her grandfather like the good samaritan I am. Is that really so wrong?"

 _"Torchwick, you will listen and you will listen well: she has absolutely nothing to do with this or us! Anything you_ think _you know about her is a mistake, so just let her go before you bring all of Beacon down on your head."_ Torchwick rolled his eyes as he came to a stop at a large push door. Mercury stood guard, watching the crime boss with a cocked eyebrow. He leaned away from his Scroll as Weiss went on and mimicked someone yapping away with his hand.

"You know, I'm beginning to get the feeling that we just aren't connecting, here. If we're just gonna keep talking past each other, I think I'll just cut it off right here. In fact, I think I'll go have a chat with Penny, now. Though, let me tell you, I think she _has a few screws loose._ " Weiss' panicked shout was cut off with the simple press of a button. Torchwick dropped the scroll into his pocket and looked over at Mercury.

The crime boss scoffed. "Women," he grumbled. Mercury nodded sagely.

* * *

Weiss barreled through the bathroom door in a panic, clutching her towel to herself and looking for all the world like she'd found another assassin in the shower waiting for her. "They've got Penny!" She shouted before the other two could ask questions.

Yang and Ruby both sprung up on their feet. "Who? The White Fang?" Yang asked.

"No, _Torchwick_ , of all people! He said something about her 'grandfather'; he's probably involved, too. He even knows that she's..." Weiss froze up, remembering that it was more than just a _little_ secret. Even in a situation like this, Weiss wasn't sure if she could just freely say that Penny is—

"A robot?" Yang finished her sentence. Weiss and Ruby stared blankly at her, then at each other.

"B-but, how'd you..."

"Come on, guys, did _none_ of you notice?"

"You only talked to her once!"

"Yeah, and that's all I needed!"

"What if she was just sheltered?"

"Sheltered and under constant military protection while coincidentally never being seen unless she's sneaking out? Uh-huh, right. Robot." Yang crossed her arms with a smug grin. In truth, after Blake got her by being a faunus, she just looked a little closer into how other strange people acted. Really, after she thought even a little on Penny it felt like the worst-kept secret in all of Remnant.

"That's so _cool!_ Does she have laser vision? Grappling hands? Oh! Oh! Can she turn into a jet?!" Ruby bounced on her bed, the events of the previous night swept off into a corner of her mind, for now.

"Wha... but you... no! That doesn't matter right now, what matters is that her grandfather or Torchwick kidnapped her and _know_ she's mechanical!" Weiss shouted.

Ruby furrowed her brow. "But no one's said anything about it... she's not on any of the casualty lists. Why would they try to hide something like that?"

"... If Penny knows too much, they might not want anyone to know the difference between her being gone because she's kidnapped, and her being gone because they had to take... _desperate measures_ to keep information out of the enemy's hands," Weiss spoke quietly, her gaze turned to the ground. It was cruel and awful, but, it sounded exactly like what Atlas could do in this situation. At least, what her father would've done. The room fell quiet at the possibility before Ruby stepped forward and, with a determined smile, declared as if it were the most obvious thing in the world:

"Then we'll just save her before they have to do that!"

"Yeah, duh, but how?" Yang pointed out. "We don't even know where she's hiding."

"We know she has a Scroll, maybe we could track her, somehow?" Ruby suggested.

"First, we need to find out how to track a Scroll. If Atlas and Beacon are refusing to mention Penny's kidnapping, I am afraid the proper authorities won't be of any help. Unfortunately, there have been some... issues... with procuring my own resources, as well, and going through more _improper_ ," That is, illegal. "Channels could take too long."

Ruby's smile waned. "Actually, there is someone who probably knows how to do that..."

* * *

Adam stepped out of the bathroom of their ruined dorm and adjusted his outfit. He was right: everything was still working fine even after the attack. His eyes scanned across the rest of the room: their beds were nothing but splinters and ash, black scorch marks had torn and marred the entire side of the room where he and Weiss once slept, and new bullet holes no doubt caused by his spare ammunition going off from the flames were scattered all across the room. The scent of red Dust would likely linger no matter what Professor Goodwitch did. Adam sighed: even if she could fix this, he wondered if they would still see the wounds left on their dorm, if only in their minds.

A knock at the door brought Adam out of his thoughts. By the time he'd turned around, Ozpin had already opened the door.

"I'd had a feeling you would be here," He said casually and let himself in. "I need you to perform a task for me." Ozpin shut the door behind him. So, this was where they were, now: not even attempting to hide that he'd become Ozpin's puppet.

"Are you seeking revenge for this attack?"

Ozpin's constant, pleasant smile grew a little more sly. "It seems you've caught me red-handed. However, I do believe I am correct in assuming you want the same, as well. Worry not, Mister Belladonna, I am not requesting you become my soldier, nor am I demanding it. I simply believe our interests, right now, are aligned." When Adam did not object, Ozpin continued: "I've heard from one of your fellow teammates that the 'CCT infiltrator' was returning to a base located in the southeast. There are a multitude of missions that will be located near or around this area. All I need from you is to select Mission #31: a 'Search and Destroy' located in Mountain Glenn."

"Have you narrowed down the location of their base that swiftly? How?"

"You have your sources, and I have mine," Ozpin replied cryptically. "Nonetheless, so long as you follow your instructions, I am sure we will be one step closer to trapping our enemies." He turned and opened the door to leave. "Ah, and before I forget, a rather curious package to Ruby and Yang was redirected to my office from Signal Academy on account of your quarters being out of commission." Ozpin reached down and brought up a simple, if large, brown cylinder with a number of holes at the top. It shuddered.

"I haven't the slightest clue what it is, though. Nor do I know why it smells so strangely. I _would_ believe that it was some sort of animal, but, as pets are not allowed in the dormitories, it _surely_ could not be that," He said facetiously as he handed off the shaking package to a rather confused Adam. "Alas, I may never know. Have a pleasant day, Mister Belladonna, and good luck on your mission in Mountain Glenn." With that, Ozpin left.

Adam looked down at the package and raised an eyebrow. The package became still once more, and Adam suddenly got the strangest feeling that the next couple days were going to be very odd, indeed...


	39. V2: Unified Through Division

**Unified Through Division  
**

* * *

 **A/N: Editing the chapter just to add this in. Due to some real-life stuff I'm putting a pause to the fic for a month(until 10/9/2017) to focus on that. Don't worry, I'll be back: by all means I probably _could_ write during this but it would be so sporadic that I would prefer to just hold off and then return to a consistent schedule.  
**

* * *

"The king has arrived!" Torchwick threw open the doors to Merlot's lab, each slamming against the walls behind them. To his chagrin, however, Doctor Merlot did not so much as budge, leaning over a terminal and typing away. The man was barely fifty yet with his powder-white hair and how he was hunched over his computer, he looked like he was pushing eighty. The sterile, white, windowless room gave the impression of a cell.

"You know, Doc, this is why I don't even come around here: you don't even throw a glance my way. You are just like my parents, you know that?" He strolled closer, grimacing briefly as he stumbled once and needed to rely on his cane. Torchwick's eyes fell to his right leg. 'It would feel brand new', they said. Yeah right. Grumbling, he stepped closer and looked over just what Merlot was doing: the man was typing way too fast for him to catch what he was actually writing, so Torchwick's gaze naturally wandered over the terminal to the thin wire trailing to the deactivated android girl laying there with out a scrap of cloth—

"Oh, good _Lord_ , Merlot, what kind of creepy shit are you doing, in here?!" He had a line and whatever might've been going on here was _definitely_ crossing it.

Merlot paused in his work. "Excuse me?"

"Don't you give me that 'excuse me' crap, where's her clothes?!"

He turned to face Torchwick, and glared at him with a blocky, gray implant with a red lens replacing his eye. "How prudish. She's a machine."

"Who looks exactly like a teenage girl."

"Oh, I'm sorry, do you dress up your toaster as well? How about your various Scrolls and computing devices?" Merlot grunted and returned to his computer, leaving the disgusted Torchwick out of sight and out of mind. "Don't be so immature."

"Hmph, expected this kind of perversion from Mercury, not so much from you. I guess you're less a grandfather and more a 'creepy uncle' type, anyway."

Merlot sighed in exasperation. He didn't understand this generation. "If I throw a... _hospital gown_ on her, will you quit your whining?"

"... I'll contemplate it."

* * *

Adam had just lifted his hand to knock at their temporary dorm's door when it was suddenly flung open with Yang grinning on the other side. He couldn't help but notice that it faded slightly upon seeing him.

"Oh, hey, Adam. We were just talking about you! Long story short, Penny's kidnapped,"

"During the attack?"

"She's a robot," Yang kept talking as if she hadn't even heard him.

 _"What?"_

"We need you to track down her Scroll because Weiss called her and Torchwick answered,"

"You _need_ to slow down—"

"And—ooh, is that for us? Thank you!" She snatched the package from his hand and casually shut the door in his face. Adam stared at the door for a couple seconds in a mixed state of shock and growing agitation. Scowling, he swept his Scroll past the door's scanner and threw it open, storming in with eyes glowing red.

"If I could just get an explanation as to what is happening, that would be... wonderful..." He slowed to a stop as he saw Yang with the package opened and upturned, along with what looked like just a mass of trembling fur clumped onto the ground beneath it. Ruby and Weiss were curiously leaning over it while Yang fiddled with a small note that had been stuffed inside. Adam sighed. At least the atmosphere wasn't nearly as stifling... emotionally, that is. He grimaced in disgust: whatever that thing was, it smelled like wet dog.

After a last tremble, the mass bounced up, shook itself and turned to look at the members of RWAY with big, happy puppy eyes. Ah. It _was_ a dog.

... Wait.

"Zwei! Oooh, I missed you!" Ruby gasped, practically tackled the black-and-white corgi and swept it up in her arms, giggling giddily as both Weiss and Adam stared on in utter confusion. Yang did not so much as blink at the oddity, instead reaching over and petting Zwei any time she could, laughing with her sister. Were they not in a completely different dormitory, one might not have been faulted for believing that last night simply hadn't happened at all, however, there were other thoughts on the two partners' minds:

"Who sent a _dog?_ " Adam asked in disbelief.

"In the _mail?!_ " Weiss added.

With Ruby busy cuddling with her dog, Yang was left to answer her. "Ah, our dad did! He does stuff like this all the time," She waved it off as if this was the most normal thing for a father to do. Weiss warily stepped towards Ruby and the dog in her arms while Adam shook his head.

"What, send your pets? That's dangerous, how could it breathe?" He scoffed.

"It has breathing holes, duh." Yang waved over the package's small holes.

"How did he _eat?_ " Yang flipped over the package, and a veritable pile of dog food cans poured out of it, along with a can opener. To Adam's even greater confusion, two of those cans were already opened. Did they awaken the aura of their _dog?_ Did their _dog_ have a Semblance of some kind? Before Adam could ask either of these increasingly important questions, Yang had plucked an envelope out from now-empty package.

"Oh, cool! Dad sent a letter with him! 'Hey, girls! I don't know why, but for some reason yesterday, I got this weird feeling that you two needed a good cheering up. Since I'm heading out on my first mission in a while—ah, the joys of an empty house—' " Yang paused her reading to huff, at that. " 'It sounds like a great time to go ahead and leave Zwei with you for a while! I'll come by to pick him up myself when I get back. Love you both, Taiyang.' "

Weiss scoffed and leaned over to glare at the corgi, which rolled around in Ruby's arms until it could flop on its side and stare at the heiress. "So you are telling me that this mangy, drooling..." Her lips twitched up when it flipped onto its back. "Mutt, is—"

Zwei yipped, and Weiss' icy persona shattered in an instant.

"Going to wif wit' us forever?!" She let out an unladylike squee and happily pet their new temporary dog, giggling as he hopped out of Ruby's arms and into her own. As Weiss descended into babytalk and cute noises playing with Zwei, Adam merely looked the three over. Seeing them this happy, Adam decided... his questions could wait. With a slight chuckle, he reached out to pet Zwei...

And immediately stepped back as it barked viciously at him. Just as quickly as he'd become so angry, Zwei was back to his normal happy self as the three girls snickered at him.

"Dogs can see the _true_ side of people," Yang half-teased.

"No wonder he doesn't like you, then, Adam: he can tell you're more of a... _cat_ person." Weiss looked a little _too_ proud of herself as Ruby broke into full giggles and Yang gasped and grinned like a mother proud of her child. Adam stared stoically at Weiss, but any response of his was swept away by the intercom system turning on and reminding them that all first-year students were to come to the amphitheater in one hour.

"Alright, we can figure out what we're going to do with him when we get back! Let's... actually get ready!" Yang declared and unceremoniously shoved Adam back out of the dorm so they could get dressed.

* * *

Walking through campus was a grim reminder of the events that had transpired last night: though Professor Goodwitch had been left working overtime, she could not find every bullet hole, nor could she easily wash away every scorch mark or groove carved out by a sword. Such would take at least a couple days and, until then, every sign of the assault drew the students' eyes towards them like iron to a magnet. Gray clouds left the sky overcast, and left the normally vibrant academy dull and dreary.

Students now walked in packs yet paradoxically glanced between one another with faint suspicion, unable to even trust their own friends. It was clear that news had spread that many of the perpetrators were former students of Beacon, with some even saying there were some from _Mistral_ who joined in on a whim. By the time they'd gotten close to the amphitheater, team RWAY had noticed a different, far darker change: the groups were very clearly segregated into faunus and human. The majority of the suspicious glares and whispers were directed at the faunus, and the bigger the groups of faunus, the more space _coincidentally_ grew around them.

More than once did Adam notice worried glances from his own teammates thrown in his direction, both no doubt wondering how he was feeling... and from that all-too-similar suspicion he caught flickering in both Yang and Weiss' gaze, if he was going to do anything. His grip had tightened on his weapon enough to whiten his knuckles beneath his black gloves. A cry rung out in the crowd when they reached the door, and Adam immediately spun to face where it came from: a faunus girl with a squirrel tail—something so hard to hide in times like this—shoved to the ground, another girl standing above her, ranting. Furious and afraid, screaming about how they'd brought the White Fang here. _All_ faunus did.

Eyes glowing a cold red, Adam nearly abandoned his team without a thought, about to storm over at once, when someone grabbed his arm. He turned his hateful gaze down to whoever dared try to stop him: even if it was his own team, they of all people should know how he could never let this happen. If they thought he would stop, then—

Crimson eyes met silver. Ruby did not so much as flinch, instead looking up with a determined, silent plea in her eyes. Unlike Yang and Weiss, there was not even a spark of blame in her gaze. Adam was reminded all too much of when Velvet was being assaulted by Cardin, but, this time, he reluctantly conceded, and looked over at the incident one last time. What he found both pleased him, yet brought that anger in on himself: two faunus had come to her aid, standing on either side of the squirrel faunus and glaring at the girl lashing out at her. Both wore black armbands.

The beginnings of a crowd had already begun to hurriedly disperse, a wide berth of space now suddenly given to the faunus and their accuser. A mix of fear and shame flickered across the girl's face, and she quickly departed. Fear. Adam could practically smell it spiking whenever the faunus grew close to one another, now. This attack had spread fear throughout the entire academy, and it was only that which was keeping the faunus who were not even involved from suffering for it. Perhaps if there were more attacks, more terror applied time and time again, it would keep the negativity from outweighing it... but not for long. Eventually, the hatred would overwhelm the fear. Eventually, there simply would not be anything left to do to make humans fear the faunus more, and when that did happen, it would all collapse.

It was now that Adam truly realized this, and scowled, for while those he taught were proudly showing their faunus nature and suffering for it, he was perfectly safe under this damnable hat. Adam nodded thankfully to Ruby without a word. The group took their place in the amphitheater, quiet and deep in thought. Briefly, Adam caught Blake's eye from the other side of the room, but she quickly turned away.

Goodwitch looked upon the students and sighed. Beacon, unsurprisingly, formed the majority of the students there, with the members of the other three academies simply having the students participating in the Vytal Tournament and those who had gotten the permission to visit and serve as exchange students during the festival itself. Her students were fractured, beaten, afraid. For that matter, only Vacuo's students, sticking out like sore thumbs with their casual, brightly-colored clothes, escaped this oppressive feeling. Yet, she could still see one thing in all of their eyes, standing out even within the anger, fear and hate: determination. The determination to still do right.

"Professor Ozpin would like to share a few words before we begin... however, in light of yesterday's events, I, too, wish to speak to you all." She paused, looking over the masses whose attention lay solely on her. "I know that the previous night has been trying for all of you, and I know that it may not seem fair to send you away on missions not but a day after such a terrible assault on Beacon Academy... however, as I look out and see all of you still standing here today, prepared to uphold our way of life, I must say that I have never been more proud. Thank you, students of Remnant." With a genuine, warm smile, Goodwitch stepped aside for Ozpin, leaving higher spirits in her wake.

"Today, we stand together," He began, his voice managing to carry all the strength of his declaration the previous night, yet without much more than a mere hardening of his tone. "Mistral. Vacuo. Atlas. Vale. We have received a grave reminder of the forces we stand united against, but we must not forget that it was not always like this. Eighty years ago, we fought not together against the Grimm or terrorism, but against ourselves. We fought for more than just borders and trade, but for the very right to express one's self, for individualism, and for the very survival of creativity itself. It was a war that could leave the very core of humanity dull, and it was something that we could not stand for." Ozpin's voice was solemn, as if he was on the very front lines, himself.

"And so we named our children after the very core aspects of our creativity: color, art, music, and nature. It was a way to demonstrate that we would not stand for such tyranny, and it was a trend that has stood the test of time. We encourage individuality, expressionism, and unity through diversity. As I have said, today we stand together, but no longer are our threats nations or clear faces to put names to. Today, we fight against the abstract: Grimm, terrorism, and hatred. We have seen yesterday just how grave these abstractions are, yet, we stand united, nonetheless, for we have no choice. _We_ stand between the innocent and a grave fate, and as our cities celebrate the end of that cataclysmic war eighty years ago, we shall celebrate too, by fighting as one against the menaces threatening our very way of life." He swept a hand out to the crowd, and countless holographic screens began to rise across the edge of the amphitheater, one by one.

"As first-year students, you will be tasked with shadowing a professional Huntsman or Huntress on a mission. Some of you may be taken out of the Kingdom for several days. Others may work within the walls for the rest of the week. But no matter which path you choose, remember to be safe, remember your training, and remember to do your very best." A slim smile slipped across Ozpin's face as he turned to leave, but paused, as if he had forgotten something.

"Ah yes, and do remember: simply because a mission is short does not mean it will be any easier. Be warned."

And with that, the students began to scatter for the boards, searching for the perfect mission to serve as their first steps into becoming genuine Huntsmen and Huntresses. As Ozpin walked away, his eyes locked with Adam's in the crowd. They nodded to one another, and Adam wordlessly walked off towards the holographic screens, leaving the rest of his team's conversation and leaving the three girls confused.

"Here." Adam pointed to 'Mission #31'. Search and Destroy located in Mountain Glenn, 'Quadrant 5', as it was called, for it was left outside the four 'true' quadrants of Vale, abandoned and forgotten.

"Mountain Glenn? Are you sure they're hiding out in there, Adam? There's an awful lot of Grimm, there..." Weiss mused. Ruby perked up.

"Yeah, if we try for a mission that dangerous, what if our Huntsman or Huntress is too strong for us to give them the slip?" Yang added on. Ruby's eyes gleamed. "Maybe a reconnaissance mission?" She offered. Ruby's response was to leap over and type RWAY's name into mission #31 as fast as she could.

 **'Mission unavailable to first-year students'** flashed on-screen. Ruby looked shattered as Yang and Weiss looked back at Adam. What, was this some kind of joke? Adam let out a deep sigh.

"Well, any other bright ideas?" Weiss teased him.

"Oh, oh!" Ruby called and bounced on her heels. "We _mail_ ourselves there!"

"That's certainly one option," Ozpin chuckled to himself as he stepped out from behind the screen. The three girls noticeably straightened up knowing that their headmaster was right there listening to them. "Unfortunately, we determined the concentration of Grimm was much too severe for first year students. It seems that particular region has become rather popular for them, as of late. Yet, I get the sneaking suspicion that the four of you will find your ways there, whether we want you to or not." The three girls chuckled and shifted nervously, but Adam only narrowed his eyes: this was all just a setup for Ozpin to arrive and look better. Clever, but manipulative. Him being used as the trigger for something this simple left him all the more agitated.

"What makes you say that?" Ruby tried to put on her most innocent, adorable grin.

"I'm still curious as to how you four managed to find yourselves at the docks, last semester." Ozpin's gaze fell to Weiss, who shuffled nervously.

"Just as curious as I am on just how you _really,_ " He glanced over at Adam. Really, did he think that ploy would work? "Managed to find out about a hideout in the southeast."

"And I'm _certainly_ wondering about that report of robots, motorcycles and red-headed girls saving citizens on the highway..." Ozpin's gaze slowly drifted to the sisters. He shrugged and sipped from his mug. "I doubt I'll ever find the answers I'm looking for. But, I'm certain that anyone who has had the same achievements would be far and away above the capabilities and restrictions of first-year students, wouldn't you agree?" His smile became much more knowing as he looked from Ruby to the screen once more. Taking the hint, she reached out and put her team in once more. This time, no error flashed.

Ruby turned to Ozpin with determination in her eyes. "Thank you, Professor. We won't let you down!"

Ozpin's expression grew serious. "Do not thank me for this. Persistence and... 'audacity' have carried you far, but you must understand: the forces outside the Kingdom's walls will not care. Stay close to your Huntsman _at all times_ , do not 'give him the slip', and do exactly as he says." Yang glanced around innocently. "He will be aiding you on your mission, and he can have you sent back to Beacon if your skills prove to be unsatisfactory... that being said, good luck." He departed, leaving the four to mull over their decision.

"I _think_ he already knows..." Ruby let out a nervous chuckle.

* * *

Four hours. They had only four hours to prepare themselves for their journey.

"I see it as important to remember just who we are supposed to be fighting, once we arrive in Mountain Glenn," Adam suddenly spoke up back in their temporary dorm room as he scanned through a Scroll. Ruby and Yang paused in their weapon maintenance on their beds, and Weiss curiously looked over from where she sat, petting Zwei.

"... The White Fang? Exactly what are you saying?" The heiress asked. Adam did not even look up from the Scroll.

"I'm saying that we should remember that we'll be fighting people." The room grew colder. Adam sighed: he did not wish to bring the room down, but, it was something they needed to hear. To be warned of. "Not just people, but faunus who have been grabbed off of the street and given only weeks, even days, of training. They will be almost indiscernible from those with a wealth of aura, and will be trying to kill us all the same."

"If this is another attempt to get us to stop, you're a bit late on this," Yang interrupted.

"No, this is an attempt to get you to _prepare._ Aura levels will fluctuate from soldier to soldier, some may not even have the same power as even normal first-year students, but you cannot afford to approach them lightly."

"You're asking if we can... take a life." Weiss figured it out. Now, he looked over to them. She held Zwei close, but, her eyes shined with steely determination. Yang watched him warily, slowly understanding what he was implying, before. Ruby was the only one who kept her eyes averted, trying to keep herself small.

"I cannot blame you if you cannot, but you still must be able to answer it. Can. You. Kill?" Adam looked between Weiss and Yang, then tossed the Scroll over to Weiss: he'd tracked Penny's Scroll, visible as simply a green dot flashing on an old map of Mountain Glenn. "Those coordinates, keep them in mind, because by the time we reach them, you will need that answer, at least for yourself."

Seeing Ruby threaten to slip back into the sadness before Zwei arrived, Yang growled and stormed over to him. "Look, I really appreciate you worrying, but we are _not_ like you. _Murder_ is not our first course of action, we can make it through with our hands clean." Adam stared at her without visible emotion, his gaze only turning to Ruby. The youngest of them shuddered, and Adam sighed.

"The point is not if you want to, it is if you _can._ That is all that matters, here." He slowly rose from his own bed, gaze impassive as he focused on Yang. She prepared herself for another lash at Adam when he simply stepped past her. "Ruby, come with me. We need to talk."

"She doesn't want to talk about it, alright?" Yang defended her sister. "Even if she did, she _probably_ wouldn't want to do so with you—"

 _"Alright..."_ Ruby's mumble left Yang speechless. As she watched the two of them leave the dorm, Yang could only wonder just what was going on, here? Her own sister wouldn't tell her a thing, but was totally willing to chat with the one who _screwed her up?_ Her eyes steadily turned crimson as she grew angrier: even if this was just some attempt at getting a little more independent, being just... chucked aside like this was infuriating!

"So, I'll take that scowl as a sign that you haven't the slightest on what is going on between those two, either?" Weiss sighed out and let Zwei go, where his dog instincts brought him over to Yang's side, happily chasing around her in an attempt to bring her hopes up.

"Not a damn clue, but whatever it is, I don't like it one bit..."

* * *

 **A/N: Apologies for the late chapter, a shift in my work schedule left me unable to get my usual typing in. As a result I'm afraid this'll be the only chapter this week.  
**

 **Comment and criticism always accepted.**


	40. V2: Field Trip

**Field Trip**

* * *

 _[Restarting. . . Aura detected. Primary systems online.]  
_

Penny took a deep breath and looked around as her spirit flooded back into her body. At last, she'd gained full control of herself, again! She looked down to find herself in a plain hospital gown with a number of wires trailing down from her lower back towards a terminal and, for just a moment, wondered if she was rescued from whatever villainous base she was being held in.

"Why, good _morning!_ " Her head snapped over to look at Roman Torchwick sitting in a black, out-of-place office chair in front of her. Nevermind. She was still captured. Penny did not answer at first, simply examining her target. He looked... haggard: his hair was messier than her image references, and darkness had begun to grow beneath his eyes. His cane was leaning against the terminal, and his hands were stuffed into his pockets. Torchwick looked like he'd been waiting there for a while... but why?

"Merlot may be a little too focused on the 'whys' and 'hows', but I had a sneaking suspicion the only reason you couldn't move was because your aura's powering everything and _this_ little gadget right here," Torchwick pulled the bulky cuffs from one of his pockets. "was keeping disrupting it. Am I correct, on that?"

Penny didn't answer. Torchwick rolled his eyes. "Let me guess, General Compensation told you never to give information to the enemy, right? Some military mumbo-jumbo about discipline?"

"... I do not recognize that general."

"Aaah, she speaks at last! You know, General Compensation? Ironwood?"

Caught off-guard, Penny innocently asked, "Is that a common codename or nickname for General Ironwood?"

Torchwick stared at her for a few seconds before grinning wickedly. " _Yes._ Yes, it is, Penny! You're a quick learner, aren't you?"

"Affirmati—" Remembering her protocol, Penny went silent, pursed her lips and glared at Torchwick. He scoffed and rolled over to the terminal, typing at something.

"Look, kid, if I just wanted to interrogate you, I'd just go looking through here or... I don't know, change your protocols. There's a _lot_ you can do when you have a direct line to someone's head." He looked over at Penny. "What, don't believe me?" She immediately shook her head. "... Well, at least you're honest. I learned code like this to keep myself one step ahead of the curve: the world's goin' digital, kid, and I'm gonna be at the forefront of Cross Continental Net crimes, just you wait! Oh, don't tell the cops I said that."

"Request denied."

"Worth a shot. It helps that you people have such _pathetic_ security! I'm pretty sure even I could break into the CCT if I wanted to. Here's the proof: you think you're top-of-the-line? Try throwing one of your little swords at me." Penny narrowed her eyes at Torchwick's provocation, weighing directives not to listen to the enemy versus the possibility of stopping him here and now. Her eyes flashed, she threw out her hand and... nothing happened. Torchwick smirked and typed something into the terminal. Penny felt a faint sense of unease at knowing how easily she was just being changed like this. "And... tada! Just like that, your weapons are fully online again." Torchwick looked over the screen at her expectantly.

"... _Online?_ "

"Thaaat's right." The two stared at each other for a moment. Penny looked down at herself, then up to Torchwick. Herself. Torchwick. Herself. Six gleaming blades whipped themselves out from her upper back and prepared to launch themselves at the criminal. An equally sudden shock cut her hopes at attacking off, causing her to yelp in surprise as it disrupted her power and left her blades dropping worthlessly around her.

Torchwick sighed and rolled his chair back in front of Penny. He drew out a little remote and waved it teasingly at her. "Ah-ah-ah, that's not how this works. _You're_ supposed to say, 'but why would you let me keep my weapons'? And then _I'm_ supposed to say 'because unlike your side, we trust people.' Got it? Great! Alright, and... go!"

Penny lunged for him again but was still too slow to prevent another shock. Torchwick sighed once more. What ever happened to the good old days when the naive ones let you try to corrupt them properly!

* * *

Yang and Weiss leaned closer to the door, the latter willing to put how uncomfortable she felt with Yang in her personal space aside as long as she could hear just what Adam was telling Ruby. It helped that Zwei had managed to sneak his way between the two, sniffing around at the door. Unfortunately, even with their ears an inch away, they could only hear the faintest of murmurs... then nothing at all. In a panic they pressed themselves to the door in a last, desperate attempt to catch anything, but either they were heard, or the two had walked away. They listened for a couple seconds more—

 **KNOCK KNOCK**

And flopped over onto their backs as someone knocked hard on the door.

 _"Helloooo! Anyone home!"_ a girl called from beyond before knocking again.

 _"Not so loud, Nora! You could've scared them!"_ Jaune's voice came just as loud as Nora's, but at least he tried to sound hushed. Grumbling as they both got up to her feet, Yang opened the door and glared at the two. Pyrrha and Ren stood behind them with embarrassed and stoic looks, respectively.

She didn't even have time to say hello before Nora sprung uncomfortably close to Yang and started jabbering away: "Hey, you two! Where's Ruby and Adam? Both of them have been brooding lately are you two okay I heard you got _personally_ targeted by super secret assassins and that must've been just the worst thing ever so we can to see if you two were doing okay but then we never got the chance and you guys seemed alright at the mission selection so I was _also_ curious about—"

"What Nora is... _trying_ to ask is," Pyrrha interrupted her talkative friend. "Are you all doing alright? Being attacked like that is just a... terrible experience."

"Well, about the fifth time around, I think you start getting used to it," Weiss bitterly retorted, her mood having only soured from this sudden change in both Ruby and Adam. Pyrrha let out a tiny, mirthless chuckle. "Sorry..." the heiress sighed out. "Sorry, that was awful of me."

"No, no! I understand, trust me... you earn a lot of enemies being a champion for so long." The mood only dropped further.

Yang brought a hand through her hair. She missed being with friends that had more social skills than wet bread. "Sooo, what mission did you guys go for?" Instead of giving an answer, Nora suddenly yelped and jumped back, looking around.

"Something furry touched my leg!" Everyone's gaze drifted towards the floor, where Zwei was sniffing around at the new four without a care in the world. Nora squealed and brought Zwei to her chest, springing into a rapid-fire chain of baby talk and giggles that none of them could understand.

"Hey, Zwei's mine!" Weiss complained and stepped outside the door to reach for Zwei only for Nora to lift him up away from her.

"Uh, Weiss, he's our dog," Yang pointed out.

"I will buy him." As Weiss stared back at her, Yang could not tell if she was joking or not. That worried her.

"Uh... guys? Aren't pets sorta... not allowed, or something?" Jaune offered a meek protest and scooted away from Nora and Weiss.

"Don't be lame, Jaune," Yang said.

"Aw, come on, I'm just saying! I'm— _some_ people could be allergic to dogs! Back me up, Pyrrha!" Jaune looked back to his partner for support, only to find her staring wistfully at the cute little corgi, too shy to actually ask if she could pet him. Ren stared at the group without so much as a gleam of emotion in his eyes, offering only a helpless shrug when Jaune's gaze reached him.

"You _know_ , since our mission's coming up today, we could always use some help taking care of Zwei while we're gone..." Yang offered.

"Oh, I don't really know, Jaune's right! I don't think it would be allowed..." Pyrrha sighed, not even convincing herself that it was the right decision beyond being against the rules.

"You can pet him whenever you want," Yang threw in and sweetened the deal too much for the champion to take. With Pyrrha in, Nora still holding Zwei away from Weiss and Ren not voicing an opinion in either direction, it was a two-to-one decision: JNPR got the dog for a couple days. Jaune once more looked between his team in a panic, but was outvoted without even ordering a democratic vote in the first place.

"But... you can't just... but I'm—yeah, whatever, we'll take care of the dog. Just..." Jaune sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Be back soon, alright? We'll be guarding a village with Professor Port in three days."

Yang took a sharp breath through her teeth. "Ooh, Professor Port? That's rough."

* * *

The walk towards the helipads was an awkward one for RWAY. Ruby had returned saddened, yet carrying an accepting smile, and slowly but surely had returned to her usual self over the course of their preparations for their first mission as Huntresses(and Huntsman). This only drew more suspicion from Weiss and Yang towards Adam, who, since his own arrival, had been returning to how he once was: quiet, brooding, and clearly perturbed by something. They just had no clue what, and they couldn't stand it one bit.

However, whether it was from willful ignorance or being genuinely oblivious, Ruby skipped along at the front of their group, backpack secured and humming quietly to herself as if the rest of her team was not shrouded in a cloud of tension. She only paused when she noticed people starting to gather around near one pad in particular, and it was easy to see why, especially considering how that absolute _giant_ of a man, Yatsuhashi, was easily visible towering above the crowd: CFVY had returned.

"Ruby! Adam!" Velvet managed to wriggle her way out from the crowds to jog over to the team the moment she saw a sign of them. "Are you all alright? We tried to get back as soon as we could when we got the news!" She pulled Ruby into a hug.

Ruby blushed faintly at the attention and contact and giggled as she returned it. "We're fine, Velvet, really! We didn't even get hurt. Thanks for being so worried about us, though."

"We should—" Adam was cut off as Velvet hopped over to hug him, as well, and his lips twitched up into the slightest smile. He would've returned the affection, but, he wasn't blind: he could see—and feel, for that matter—the judging glares of Velvet's team. "... Should be asking you the same thing: last time I checked, your mission was supposed to end last week."

"You were around Mountain Glenn as well, weren't you? What happened?" Weiss stepped forward into Velvet's view and the conversation both. The rest of Velvet's team seemed perfectly content to sit back and watch with ambivalence. After all, Velvet was the only real link between the two: being one of the most popular teams not just in Beacon, but all of Remnant, came at a certain cost, and that was having not just yourself but your family and even friends pushed into the spotlight. More importantly, it would push them into more scrutiny. With a shy leader, a world-famous heiress, a girl who often found herself in the darker parts of town and the brooding guy who no doubt had countless secrets, the rest of CFVY had wisely decided to keep their distance.

"Nothing _happened_ _,_ " Velvet stressed as she reluctantly stepped away from Adam. "It was just... something's wrong, over there. There weren't _more,_ but they were all... smarter. Stronger." Behind her, Coco nodded for them to leave: the crowd was getting bigger by the minute. Velvet offered an apologetic smile and rushed back off towards her team, leaving RWAY left only with a lingering sense of dread replacing the tension that surrounded them before.

"... Well! That's not foreboding at all!" Yang said with a giant grin. Adam and Weiss stared after Velvet, unknowingly sharing the same thought: they could understand the Grimm being overwhelming in number so close to a supposed White Fang base, but, being smarter? Unless there was a horde of century-old Grimm, there was something far worse going on, and no doubt related to the White Fang. More than anything, 'intelligent Grimm' made their chances of survival sound far lower than just waves of them...

"Don't worry, it's gonna take more than some brainy Grimm to stop Team RWAY. We never backed down before, and we aren't going to stop now, so, come on, team, let's go save the world!" Ruby cheered and led the team to their helipad.

"Geez, you four didn't get enough of that with the giant robot?" The team looked over to find Sun strolling beside them as if he wasn't obviously eavesdropping on their conversation. Beside him, however, was someone new: a taller, sharply dressed teen in a red coat with almost neon-blue hair swept off to one side. He nodded over to the girls of RWAY with a confident smirk.

"That was only step one of our master plan!" Ruby declared with a proud grin.

"Was getting chased across half the city part of it, too?" Sun joked.

"Was totaling someone else's car?"

"... Good point."

"I don't think I've seen you around here, before," Weiss thought aloud and not-so-subtly shifted closer to the blue-haired newcomer, making no attempt to hide her wandering eyes. "What might your name be?" She cooed. Yang disguised a laugh behind a cough.

"Neptune. Neptune Vasilias, I'm just hangin' around because the last time my team left _someone_ here alone," Sun whistled and paid him no attention at all. "He wound up in Vale _months_ earlier than he should've been. But, enough about me, what about you, Snow Angel?" Neptune laid it on just as thick as Weiss was, and from the heiress' charmed giggle, it was actually working.

"I don't believe this is the time to get distracted with flirting," Adam said without a care for their flirting or whether or not it was obvious. Whereas Weiss was left flustered and blushing by his insinuations, Neptune wordlessly conceded the point with a smooth wave of his hand.

Yang, however, groaned. "Awww, come on, Adam, don't be such a stick in the mud!"

"We have a professor to meet up with approximately... thirty seconds ago," Adam countered.

"What a coincidence, so do we!" Neptune piped up. "We're off to shadow a crime specialist. All inner city detective stuff, _and_ we get junior badges." One could practically see the stars in both Weiss and Ruby's eyes, albeit for different reasons.

"So, who's your Huntsman?" Sun asked the group just as they came to a stop at their Bullhead. He received no answer, as RWAY stared on in various levels of disbelief at the man standing in front of them.

"Why, hello, students!" Doctor Oobleck sprung out of the Bullhead and swung his arm in front of him with great gusto. "Who's ready to fight for their lives!"

Sun took a sharp breath through his teeth. "Ooh, that's rough."

* * *

Sun and Neptune didn't even bother sticking around, only giving a pat on Yang and Weiss's shoulders and zipping away before they managed to get sucked into whatever chaotic mess was about to happen. Completely unperturbed by the looks of exasperation and confusion on his students' face, Oobleck paced to and fro in front of the team as he gave them the quickest briefing they'd ever heard:

"Congratulations, Huntresses-and-one-Huntsman-in-training on selecting this reconnaissance mission, however I regret to inform you that as such we will not be establishing a base of operations; rather, we will be traversing several miles of hazardous urban wasteland and making camp on any defensible positions we may stumble upon. That is correct by the way I did say 'reconnaissance' and not 'search and destroy' for I have been made fully aware of both yours and the Headmaster's final goal and objective in this reconnaissance mission!"

After giving them a brief moment to process the rapid-fire words, Oobleck spun on his heels to face them and took his time with his next statement: "I understand that what happened was terrible, but, do remember that this is still a mission and that we will be scouting as a _team._ Do not be impatient, and do not try to _give me the slip_. Now then!" That moment of clear language was gone in a flash. "I have packed all of our essentials myself, plotted the aerial course and readied the airship and, considering that we are three minutes behind schedule, I recommend we start our trip immediately so come along!" And Oobleck was gone into the Bullhead before they could blink.

"... Well, it could be worse!" Ruby tried to keep her hopes afloat.

Yang snorted. "Can it?"

She deflated. "Yeah, no, not really. Better than nothing, though!"

"I can hear you from inside here, Miss Rose!"

"Oh, uh, sorry, Professor Oobleck!" Ruby scrambled into the Bullhead, leaving her team to follow. Barely even five seconds after they had gotten in, the Bullhead rumbled and took to the skies, soaring off towards mountains off in the distance. Mountain Glenn was not particularly far away from Vale, but the uncivilized land between Vale's walls and the ruined city were some of the most dangerous in the entire continent. Walking between them, even for a team led by a full-fledged Huntsman, would be effective suicide.

As Weiss watched their position get closer and closer to the faint, green dot marking Penny's position on her Scroll's map from beside Oobleck, their leader desperately tried to save face. "I didn't mean to offend you, I just never saw you as much of a fighter! I mean, uh, I didn't mean I thought you were weak, I just thought you liked teaching more and I should really shut up right now, shouldn't I?" Ruby squeaked out.

"Nonsense! If you see me as a paragon of intellectualism rather than combat even in a _combat academy,_ then that means I'm doing my job!" Oobleck wasn't just unfazed by her words but was downright amused by them. "But the good news is that while I am a **doctor** , not a professor, who considers himself an intellectual I am also a Huntsman who has had his fair share of tussles! Due to my expertise in the field of history our dear headmaster saw fit to assign me to this particular assignment!"

"Wait, what does history have to do with this?" Yang asked.

"Ha! What a preposterous question you silly girl! The south-east may be known for large forests and deep caves but it is also home to one of if not thee greatest failure of our fine kingdom: Mountain Glenn."

An unnatural chill whipped through the Bullhead as they approached the city. In fact, it was not just growing colder, but darker as well: though the sun shone down high above them without so much as a single cloud in its way, the light had begun to dim until it was barely brighter than a stormy day. Even the colors they wore became desaturated and dull as if the very life was being drained from the air. Outside, Mountain Glenn came into view: an entire city lost to time so recently that, from afar, it held the facade of a normal city: pale buildings of gray and white reached up from empty streets to the skies, old billboards and signs stood faded, yet still readable. Without the sounds or signs of life, however, it only left it feeling all the more like a corpse.

"And Mountain Glenn has _plenty_ of history." When they had grown close enough to see the former city center cast in perpetual shadow, the strange effects surrounding the city became too much to ignore, leaving the team looking around in confusion.

"So, uh, can someone clue me into what's going on, here?" Yang asked.

"The true effects of the Grimm. Pay close attention, children, for this is what the creatures of darkness bring: destruction not just to humanity, but to life and light itself," Oobleck spoke with surprising solemnity. "When the Grimm overran Mountain Glenn, they tainted the entire region. Without nature's own aura to help cleanse the abandoned city ruins, it has become shrouded in stagnation, with only the former negative emotions borne from this tragedy to inhabit it. Loss. Misery. Sadness. This effective 'watering hole' for the Grimm now serves as a dark reminder of what we've lost." Though Grimm could be seen atop the buildings of the once-vibrant city as shadows and blots of black, they remained oblivious to the Bullhead soaring above. For all intents and purposes, they appeared invisible to the creatures.

"It's a perfect cover," Adam realized. "With so much negativity, even an army one thousand strong could hide without the Grimm attacking."

Oobleck grinned. "Precisely. But this does not mean they won't still draw attention. The instincts of the Grimm will still subconsciously bring them closer to particularly strong sources of negativity even if it is not sufficient enough to warrant an assault. The higher concentration has cut down the possible locations from an area well over eighty square miles to only twenty!"

The time to even pretend to search over such a wide, urban area was far too much, in Weiss' opinion. They knew exactly where they needed to be, but, how to explain it to Doctor Oobleck if he was not told about Penny already?

"Why, Miss Schnee, I do hope whatever is on that Scroll is worth missing out on precious knowledge!" Oobleck chimed from just beside her, jolting Weiss and causing her to fumble the Scroll in her hands.

"W-well, you see, Professor—"

 **"Doctor,"** Doctor Oobleck corrected her with a strained smile.

"I was..." Weiss' eyes darted between the members of her team but found that—with the exception of Adam, who looked more amused at her distress—they were just as surprised as she was that Oobleck had caught on already. "I was... using our current information and Grimm concentrations to mark the most likely location for the White Fang base."

"Is that so?" Oobleck studied Weiss carefully, then turned his attention to the map itself. He let out a low, suspicious hum, then snatched the Scroll out of the heiress' hands. "Why, that is _brilliant!_ A location close to the final evacuation routes of the city for the highest amount of background negativity, decaying bridges providing excellent strategic chokepoints in case of an assault, a suspiciously high concentration of Grimm surrounding that very area, and all within the region already selected, a perfect hiding place for our opposition! What an excellent show of intuition! You, students, should take notes from this young lady!" He praised her and handed the Scroll back, leaving the team to mask their collective relief.

"However, I am afraid there is one small problem with your choice, Miss Schnee, and that is that it is dangerously close to the city center itself. Approaching too closely by air leaves us at a substantially higher risk of observation, identification and immediate attack by older and more intelligent Grimm. We must still make our way there on foot." A loud caw echoed through the air, followed by a flurry of beating wings. "And _that_ is our sign to land! Bring us down!" Red lights flashed inside the cabin, followed by a metallic ringing assaulting their ears from the sharpened feathers striking their vehicle.

"On _second_ thought, students, jump on three!" The Bullhead lurched and dived in towards the ground towards the empty, urban sprawl. "One-two-three- _jump!_ " Oobleck waved the students off, making sure he was the last to make the jump to the streets below. It was not the greatest height they had all fallen from, but the controlled leap from atop an airship or the launch into the Emerald Forest that they had plenty of time to prepare for was nothing compared to the abrupt nature of their plummeting into Mountain Glenn. Brightly-lit skies or well-lit city streets were replaced by obscuring shadows and darkened alleyways, and rather than emptiness, a flock of Nevermores soared and circled them as they dropped towards unevenly spaced towers and ruins of varying heights.

Overall, it made for a decidedly harsh landing. Ruby carved her way through the Grimm, and each one slowed her fall until she could jam her scythe blade into the side of a ruined building and carve her way down its side. She was still left many stories in the air, but, reaching the ground was as simple as hopping her way down the windowsills. Weiss was the most elegant, yet perhaps the most wasteful: bright glyphs lit her path to the street beside Ruby, letting her jump and control her descent with perfect, albeit flashy, control. She grimaced: it was a very visible way to enter their area of operations.

Almost as visible as the burst of light and fire ahead of them heralding Yang's destructive landing, or the Nevermore crashing to the ground behind them with Adam standing atop its back, blade embedded inside its already fading body. Rubble and dust rained down from their various different ways of entering and low rumbling still echoed through the streets.

While Oobleck daintily landed behind them without a care in the world, the four students scanned their surroundings with weapons drawn and ready. Rough. Loud. Bright. Attention-grabbing. All of their entrances carried these aspects, which would no doubt summon Grimm en masse in these parts. Yet, as they looked upon crumbling streets with loose papers, plaster and rusting cars covering them in totality and watched the shadows of Nevermores cross the dark, dulled skies above, they found... nothing.

No attacks. Not even a sign they had been noticed. Their Bullhead was visible through the shadowy haze, banking across the sky with not even a Griffon on its tail: the Grimm had simply forgotten its existence as a whole.

"I don't understand this one bit. Surely, the Grimm should have noticed us by now. Our auras should stick out like a sore thumb!" Though it was not a question, Weiss turned to Oobleck in hopes of an answer.

The doctor took a quick sip from a thermos. "Does anyone here know how many people lived in Mountain Glenn before its fall?"

Dropping her combat stance, Yang raised her hand. "Ten million."

"Very good! Ten million. Ten _million_ citizens under constant assault by the creatures of Grimm and pushed back slowly but surely towards this very center of the metropolitan area over the course of two years. What you see here," Oobleck motioned towards the strangled sky. "is the combined negativity of _ten million_ people concentrated into the area of one of their final points of resistance against the largest recorded horde of Grimm. In the skies above we were like a stars in the night sky to them but even we who have our auras unlocked and strengthened are mere embers in the shadows down here."

Ruby couldn't help but shudder: the reminders of how they were effectively surrounded and covered in the ghosts of tragedies long past were not bringing any pleasant thoughts. "So... how do we get the supplies you brought?" So, she changed the subject.

"Our Bullhead should draw substantially less attention from the creatures of Grimm without us onboard therefore it should have no problems whatsoever in delivering our supplies on a second run. Our coordinates are constantly being broadcast to them so there is no reason to dilly-dally!" He took a lightning-fast drink from his flask. "As of right now your first mission as Huntresses and Huntsmen has begun! From this moment, I will effectively be your commanding officer and thus you must listen to everything that I say, am I understood? Yes? Marvelous! We have our first task courtesy of Miss Schnee so let us begin immediately!"

* * *

Seconds passed by silently in a stark white lab, where the two occupants leveled their glares at one another. On one side sat Torchwick, his well-known white coat covered in nicks and scratches. The rim of his white bowler cap had a section of it quite neatly sheared off. On the other, sat Penny, glaring back with defiance and a number of faint singe marks across her. A pair of swords hovered behind her, and Torchwick's thumb hovered over a remote.

The swords rose higher. Torchwick's brow rose. More seconds passed in silence.

Penny sighed, and her weapons returned to her back. "... But why would you let me keep my weapons, Mister Torchwick?"

"Because unlike your side, we trust people!" Torchwick replied with a triumphant grin. "Hey, would you look at that, you're learning! And it only took us..." Torchwick leaned over to look at the terminal. "Twenty minutes of this! And now... huh. Kind of forgot where I was going with that in the first place. Shame."

Penny tilted her head to one side and furrowed her brow. People were very strange outside of Atlas. She thought she was getting so much better at figuring them out, too...

"Tell you what, kid, I've got a couple questions for you. Answer them, and I'll be on my way." Penny did not respond, at first, for her attention was brought elsewhere: a notification that five Beacon Scrolls were active and close to her position. She could recognize two, already: Ruby and Weiss. They'd come to save her! All she'd have to do is keep Torchwick and her other captors busy while not giving away any classified information—a simple task.

If only Torchwick was _interested_ in classified information.

* * *

 **A/N: Bit of a long setup chapter, this one was. Unfortunately, the real-life issues have not exactly gone away just yet, but, I set a date and I'll stick to it. Mostly. The next chapter will come out two weeks from now and, after that, I'll just be posting weekly until the issues are gone and I can return to my former, much quicker release schedule. Thank you in advance for understanding.  
**


	41. V2: Cause Worth Fighting For

**Fighting For A Cause  
**

The sheer extent of Mountain Glenn's decay only became apparent from up close. Though the shadow-clad city held onto some semblance of life from a distance with tall towers adorned with dull company logos stretching above recognizable streets, walking down those very paths let one see Mountain Glenn for what it truly was: a pallid, bloated corpse of a city. The roads were cracked and strewn with rubble, the buildings' paints and facings had peeled away to show the stone and metal beneath, and every rumble from distant Grimm left the skeletal structures groaning and yawning with strain. Grimm crawled and leaped across buildings, and Nevermore circled the skies like vultures, yet even when they were close enough to make out clearly, they did not so much as turn a glance in Team RWAY's direction.

Their supplies dropped off to them and carried along by Doctor Oobleck, RWAY carefully made their way through these ruins. "Please remember, students, that even though we may have a location to start with it is still the first of many possible... locations!" Their chaperone reminded them. "This has not yet become a 'search and destroy' mission and it will remain that way until we have direct confirmation of criminal activity. Stay focused, watch your surroundings and report back with any potential evidence. Any questions?" Oobleck was only met with determined gazes. "That's... odd."

Weiss arched an eyebrow. "Odd?"

"Yes, very odd indeed: look over there at that Grimm atop the building two blocks ahead of us." He pointed off behind them, and the team followed his hand up to a flat, stout, and half-collapsed building. Stalking top it was what appeared to be a young Beowolf: without the common, ivory plate or even the shroud of darkness the other Grimm brought. What attracted their attention, however, was the color of its eyes and maw: sea-green. Flecks of the same color ran across its fur—a sign of the early growth of spikes.

"It's just a weird-looking Beowolf, right?" Ruby asked.

Oobleck furrowed his brow. "I don't believe so: there have been rumors of Grimm with _pale_ fur but most believe them to have been particularly ancient and heavily-armored specimen. No one has claimed to have seen a Grimm baring discoloration this bizarre. Recognize that the fall of a city of Mountain Glenn's magnitude is an extraordinarily rare event, matched and beaten only by the Oniyuri Disaster in Mistral one decade ago. It is completely possible that what we are seeing is a mutation of Grimm that has now seen us!"

There was the briefest pause before Weiss turned to the doctor. "... What?"

"It has now seen us!" Sure enough, though the far older Grimm of the city did not notice them once since their arrival, this strange pup had leveled its gaze directly at them. RWAY readied itself for combat, just in case, the pup stood tall in the ruins... and ran off.

"Well, that was weird." Yang lowered her fists. "It's the only one that could see us, but now it's running away?" The words had barely left her mouth when the pup had returned, but now with an alpha on its tail, heavy plating and countless spikes marking its age.

Ruby stifled a snicker, seeing no threat in only Beowolves. "Do Grimm usually go get their dad?"

Oobleck did not share in her humor. "No... no, not at all. Beowolves may operate under a facsimile of a canine pack structure however there have been no signs of intelligent cooperation among them beyond just following their alpha. The _alpha_ should have been seeking out the members of its pack upon locating a threat, not the other way around." The alpha rose to its full height and sniffed at the air, but was interrupted by the mutant growling and swiping off in their direction.

As the alpha let out a powerful howl, Oobleck furrowed his brow. "A younger Grimm ordering around an alpha, let alone a Beowolf? This is unprecedented! Alas, the situation leading to this may never be known," He said mournfully while Beowolves crawled out from the building and the alleyways surrounding it en masse.

Ruby brought her scythe behind her and loaded a shot. "Orders, Doctor?"

Oobleck sighed. "Show me what you are capable of."

With a wide grin, Ruby turned to the rest of her team. "I already see twenty! Bet'cha I'll get the most!"

Yang cracked her knuckles, not caring in the least about the approaching Grimm or Oobleck's curious stare in their direction. "You are _so_ on!" A single blast of her shotgun gauntlets and Yang was flying into the fray. A poor Beowolf attempted to leap up and intercept her, only to be punched down hard enough into the ground to scatter the rest of the pack. She hit the ground running and moved straight for the alpha, but, rather than fight her, it went on the defensive, ducking under her blows and backing up towards the building.

Ruby was little more than a blur of red as she zipped through a pair of Beowolves, leaving slain Grimm and rose petals in her wake. She spun to a stop and looked over her handiwork, expecting to find herself pleased. Yet, looking over the shreds and limbs, Ruby found herself involuntarily shuddering. Too many reminders of the night before—no! Her silver eyes hardened: she wasn't going to let that stop her! She casually spun on her heels and brought her crimson scythe through a Beowolf that believed her distracted enough to attack. Her attention was naturally drawn to the black and sea-green mutant on the building: it wasn't just staying out of combat, it was stalking back and forth on the roof. Its eyes were not on her or her teammates, but on the Grimm below.

Like a commander.

"Weiss, get the weird one! I think it's up to something!" Ruby shouted over the signs of combat before blasting herself off towards the largest pack of Grimm that were attempting—and failing—to land a scratch on Adam. Weiss withdrew her rapier from a dissipating Grimm and cast her gaze up towards the mutant. On the outskirts closest to Oobleck, she had a clear path towards its perch. She spun the rapier's cylinder just as the mutant jerked its head in her direction and roared. Two Grimm broke from the rest in a desperate, feral dash towards her.

Velvet's claim of more intelligent Grimm rang in Weiss' mind as she was forced to dart forward and dispatch the first in a single strike into its head. Still, as she was able to twirl past the fading body and plunge her rapier through the center of the second before it could react, it was clear to her that they were still Beowolves. They were still weak. Since the mutant was turning and getting ready to run with its tail between its legs, Weiss could assume that stood even for this particularly smart one. Glyphs forming a stairway ahead, Weiss sped her way across and over the battlefield, stepping down onto the roof of the mutant's building just as it was about to leap from the ledge.

A flick of her rapier sent a spear of ice clean through its center, pinning it to the roof's edge. The sea-green glow surrounding it faded away, leaving the body dark. Rather than begin to dissipate, however, it decomposed into a black viscous liquid. Weiss narrowed her eyes and filed that away for later before putting her new position to good use and watching over the battle. The sense of cooperation among the Grimm had collapsed completely, and Ruby and Adam were not standing still for even a fraction of a second as they took advantage of their daze and shredded them in blurs of black and red. They were fine. That just left Yang.

"Stand! Still! You! Wimp!" The blonde was shouting and punctuating each word with another devastating swing at the alpha and _presumed_ leader of the pack. Each one went flying over or just short of the Beowolf's face as it hopped and dodged backwards. It was on the complete defensive, and from how far back it had been pushed, it had been so for a while. At the least, the alpha was completely separated from its pack, but, so was Yang from her teammates. Weiss' eyes widened as she spotted gleaming rubies lurking in the ruined buildings surrounding Yang.

"Yang, you're too far out, it's a trap!" Weiss shouted and rose her rapier up at the same time the alpha roared. Four Beowolves leaped out from where they had been waiting this entire time: it was a setup from the start.

The closest to Yang was pinned to a wall by a bolt of ice, giving her enough time to pivot and bring her fist into the core of a second, fire her gauntlet and slam her elbow down into a third. It was only when Yang bull rushed the final one into a wall that she heard the alpha growling behind her. She grinned when she saw it approach in the remnants of a broken window, dug in, swung herself around when the alpha thought she wasn't paying attention and...

"Mine!" Ruby rushed by the alpha, cleaving its arm off with one pass and its head with second. The alpha was dead before Yang's fist had even reached it.

She threw her arms up in frustration as the Grimm all but exploded into shadows and ivory plate. "Aw, come on, I totally had that!"

Ruby whistled innocently and rocked back and forth on her heels. "Why, I don't know what you are talking about at all, dear sister! All I know is that I got my _sixth_ Grimm. How many do you have?" She put on a toothy grin and leaned forward, only getting a snort and grumble under her sister's breath for her troubles. "Hmmm? I can't hear you..."

"Three! It's because of that stupid alpha running away, though! I thought they were supposed to be more... I don't know, aggressive?" Yang huffed.

"If it helps," Weiss began as she daintily dropped down from the building's roof beside them. "I only eliminated four... of course, the enemy commander was included among the casualties, which, if you ask me, should place me at the top of the list!"

"Pssh, as if!" Ruby crossed her arms with a smug grin. "Numbers only!"

A dissipating Beowolf body landed between the three of them and Adam—left alone with the lion's share of the Grimm—joined with the rest of his team. "Well, then, I guess that puts me at the top. Eight," He said with a smirk.

As Ruby stammered and tried to say that the alpha _totally_ counted for more after all because it was way tougher, Oobleck stared down at the team from the mutant's former perch with a mix of amusement and disappointment. As if able to sense someone judging her, Yang cast a half-agitated look at him from over her shoulder. Oobleck put on a smile and left the students to their devices, for now, while he walked over to the remains of their strange little foe. He slipped on a glove and carefully swept one finger across the very edge of the sludge left behind.

These findings were very curious, indeed: even when separated from the rest, the darkness was barely fading at all. Instead, keeping this tar-like viscosity, it almost felt... stable. Intelligent, stabilized, discolored Grimm leading across even age barriers. Oobleck clicked his tongue. He'd need more examples than just this! Alas, a mutation of this level seemed far too new to occur more than once.

* * *

Doctor Oobleck was gravely mistaken: not only had they found this type of mutant more than once, almost every encounter with the Grimm had included one of them in their ranks: giant Beowolves with misshapen heads and countless, coiling crystals in place of spikes, Ursa that looked more like porcupines from the sheer number of spines in its back, even brief signs of a mutated King Taijitu lurking in one of the empty shells of buildings. And there were many encounters. More than any mere high concentration could justify.

Strangest of all, however, was their effect on the surrounding Grimm: compared to normal packs of Grimm, even without any outward sign of command each individual would be too intelligent for its age. They showed no signs of overwhelming increases in strength, however, and thank God for that: traps, pincer maneuvers, even a tactical, fighting retreat made it clear that, were they actually a match for his students in the first place, they may not have made it out without more than losses of aura.

Doctor Oobleck did not like this. Doctor Oobleck did not like this one bit. As he scribbled down more observations of the use of intelligent—no, _sapient_ —tactics after one of their many battles, however, one of his students saw fit to interrupt him.

"Hey, Doc, I was kinda looking to see a 'pro Huntsman' in action. Do ya think you could... I don't know, _help_?" Yang tried and failed to hide the irritation in her tone.

Oobleck glanced over his glasses at the impatient girl and put on another smile. "Ah, but don't you see? I am! Scanning, analysis and judging is what I specialize in: look here and tell me what you see!" He flipped over his notebook and pointed out on a copied map the rough positions of each encounter they had faced thus far. Already, it was so full of information, even from the sparse dots and crosses.

Yang, however, did not appear to see the same patterns he did, instead flicking her sight from the book to him until she shrugged. "I... I don't know? That there's been a lot?"

His smile slipped. "Not exactly. The Grimm we have faced thus far have been roughly equidistant from each other and focused on reasonably defensible positions. What that tells me is that the Grimm appear to have been placed _purposefully_ as a form of defense, perhaps even using these mutated Grimm to guide and keep them here." Yang stared at him with only a hint of comprehension in her eyes. "In other words, Miss Xiao Long, your teammate may be onto something. More importantly, our enemy may have found some rudimentary way of controlling the Grimm themselves!"

This did not wipe away the irritation and frustration in Yang's eyes, even if it did give an excuse for his lack of fighting. As Oobleck looked across the rest of the team, though, he found that they were not much better: Ruby's silver eyes darted from building to building, barely staying on him for more than a moment. At the least, Weiss held herself well, yet, with lips drawn into a thin line and eyes aimed at him yet unfocused, it was clearly a mask hiding whatever lay within. The eldest, Adam, the one he would have expected to at least have had some knowledge of what it truly meant to be a Huntsman or at least a soldier, looked on in the face of such news with an impassive, dead stare.

They were the picture of impatience.

Oobleck sighed. "Not every mission will be the extermination of Grimm or the height of excitement: reconnaissance, search and rescue, patrol, some, if not most will just be a heightened form of examination. Remember, this is a job that _you all signed up for._ " He took a drink from his thermos and strolled further down the tattered streets. "Come along students, your auras are still above fifty percent, so let us cover at least five more blocks before we begin setting up camp."

Something would have to be done about this.

* * *

It was close to usual distance between Grimm hordes when Oobleck suddenly spun to face the team. "Tell me, Yang, why did you choose this line of work?"

Not expecting to be put on the spot like this, Yang stammered and glanced around at her teammates. "Well, I, uh, wanted to fight monsters and save the day—"

Oobleck clicked his tongue. "We are well aware of what a Huntress _does_ , I am asking why you do it: the honest reason why you want to fight monsters and put yourself at risk for the greater good."

"The 'honest reason'?" Yang repeated. "Well, that's..." She trailed off, having expected the answer to come easily only for it to die on her tongue. Yang's glance at her teammates held more nervousness: now, it was joined by flickers of embarrassment and irritation at the curious looks cast down all around her. She needed an answer fast, and decided to just go with what her heart was telling her. "I'm... a thrill seeker. I've always wanted to go travel around all the four kingdoms and get wrapped up in as many adventures as I can. If I'm not strong enough to go on a walk through the woods, that'll never happen. I guess... I guess saving people's a bonus, y'know?"

She fidgeted under Oobleck's judging gaze for a few long seconds. "Hm, is that right?" And he kept walking.

The mere flicker of irritation turned into a burning flame. "Wait, now hold on, what do you mean by that?!" A low howl and countless, vicious growls from ahead signaled the arrival of a far larger horde of Grimm.

"Ah, it seems we're getting closer to our faunus friends! It seems our little conversation will have to wait!" Before Yang could protest further, the first of many Beowolves crawled out from a precariously leaning skyscraper. She wouldn't forget this.

* * *

"And what about you, Miss Schnee?" Oobleck spoke without even glancing at the heiress behind him, instead preferring to mark down further findings of a mutant Grimm she had so helpfully encased in ice, keeping it from dissolving entirely just yet. The sound of combat was beginning to die off around them. "The heiress to a vast company, born into fame and fortune in the center of a kingdom's power. So, why choose training for a dangerous world of Grimm over the wealthy world of business?"

Weiss allowed a smile to grace her features while Oobleck had his back turned: she had expected this question soon enough. "As you said, Doctor, I am a Schnee and the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. The moment I had found out about my potential in combat, there was no longer any question as to what to do with my life: it is my duty to follow in my grandfather's footsteps and uphold my family's legacy of honor," she said with practiced ease.

When Oobleck turned around to reveal not the smile she expected, but a subtle, judging frown, her smile slipped. Briefly, she wondered just what about that would have displeased him. "Interesting. Do tell, though: to uphold a legacy of honor, shouldn't there be one left in the first place?"

Taken aback and left with her mouth agape, Weiss prepared to ask just what he was implying when Ruby whistled to the two.

"We got 'em all, Professor, can we move on?"

" _Doctor_!" Oobleck marched past Weiss, leaving herself as the only one who could answer his and her questions both.

* * *

Deep inside a crumbling skyscraper, an Beowolf burst through a rotting wall roaring at its target. Adam spared it a single glance and, with a blur of his hand, sliced off its head from afar before it could even get into arms' reach. Alone and now surrounded by dissipating Grimm, Adam allowed his posture to falter and leaned up against one of the pillars holding the building together. Fifty Grimm. Fifty Grimm _alone_ in a single day. During his time under Raven and in the White Fang he had to exterminate Grimm often, but, not like this—not in these _numbers._ Yet, for a city of ten million to fall, the number of Grimm that rained down upon it must have been nightmarish.

Adam scowled and prepared to move up to the next floor. Grimm nest after Grimm nest, but not a single sign of the White Fang. Not even the more subtle signs they would use to mark positions. This was beginning to look a lot like a trap.

"Glad to see you're taking this seriously." Adam whipped himself around, hand on his hilt, only to find Doctor Oobleck standing in the stairway down with no minor amount of amusement behind his glasses. "While our headmaster has not given us faculty much information of your past, I've gathered enough to be intrigued on why you're here. You carry yourself with purpose and I would be a liar if I said I was not curious as to exactly what that purpose is."

Rising out of his combat stance yet making sure not to show any signs of weakness, Adam snorted. "As you may have guessed, there was a point in my life where I brought darkness and corruption with my actions. It is time for that to change: I must wash away my misdeeds."

Oobleck nodded slowly. "A fair line of reason, Mister Belladonna. How many Grimm slain do you believe it will take to equal the damage that you have caused?"

Adam narrowed his gaze. Did he really think that his plan came down only to killing Grimm? He had done far more than that: he'd stifled his own former organization on numerous occasions and... and... what, exactly? What, beyond reacting and minor inconveniences to his foes? He'd been passive. Defensive.

With only a quiet hum, Oobleck traveled back down the stairs. Adam made no attempt to stop him.

* * *

Penny blinked and tilted her head to one side. "... I still do not understand." This wasn't what she'd expected at all.

Torchwick leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples. "You know, for a sentient computer, you can be awfully dumb, sometimes, you know that? Let's try making it simpler, then: why do you fight?"

Ooh, that, she understood! He wanted to know her objective: that fit much more cleanly into her expectations for information gathering. Scarcely even a second after the words left Torchwick's lips, she sat up straight with bright eyes and responded. "I'm sorry, but my primary directive is classified—"

"No, wrong! If I wanted to know your objectives or your 'directive' or whatever, I'm pretty sure I could just find it in here or have Merlot do the hard work for me." He knocked his fist on the terminal. "So, why don't you tell me the real reason why you're fighting? They gave you free will, didn't they? And you're _supposedly_ a 'real' girl, right?"

"Yes, I'm real!" Penny snapped, surprising herself. She didn't recall being this adamant about being human.

Rather than the agitation or fear that she expected Torchwick to show at being shouted at, however, the crime lord only smirked. "Go ahead, then, prove it: _real_ people have motivations and dreams. What are yours, kid? _Why do you fight?_ " He repeated.

Penny was never told on how to answer that. If he wasn't talking about her primary objectives, what was he talking out? The thought left her frustrated, but, she couldn't let this criminal know that. Her only choice was to fall back onto her knowledge and protocols.

Penny kept her face and tone neutral as she recited, "I fight because I am a student and loyal soldier of Atlas Academy."

Torchwick stared at Penny for a few long, quiet seconds before calmly pulling a box of cigars from his pocket, lighting one and taking an equally long drag from it. He let out a deep sigh as the smoke wafted away and after a long enough time for Torchwick to be sure that the concept of an 'awkward silence' was completely lost on the weird girl, he took a last drag and returned his gaze to her. Penny hadn't moved an inch. "Oooh boy. Alright, let's just go from there: why?"

Penny tilted her head to one side. "Why... what?"

"Why are you a 'loyal soldier of Atlas Academy?' "

She narrowed her eyes. "Why are you asking me these questions?" Penny asked warily.

"Call it curiosity! I want to know just what General Compensation thinks free will is."

"... I am a loyal soldier of Atlas Academy because I..." She fell silent and turned her gaze away. No one tended to ask Penny about _her_ opinions on matters in Atlas. This simply was not a question she was prepared to answer, and it just didn't stop bothering her. "General Ironwood and my father told me that I was going to save the world."

"So, you fight because you're told to?"

Penny perked up and her eyes brightened. "Yes! That is correct! I..." Her voice trailed off and her excitement faded when she noticed Torchwick's amused expression faded. Without warning, grabbed his cane and forced himself to his feet.

"Well, I think Merlot might kill me if I keep him away from his precious computer any longer. Nice talk, though! Reeeal eye-opening." He typed something into the computer, and walked off towards the door, not even bothering to reattach the bulky, aura-restraining cuffs. "Ciao!" And then he was gone, leaving Penny more confused than when he'd walked in.

People really were strange, out here...

* * *

Merlot was waiting just outside the door for Torchwick. He made no effort to look like he was not listening in to their conversation. "So, what is your opinion on our chances of success?"

"Honestly?" Torchwick took a long drag from his cigar. "If Ironwood told her to leap off a bridge, she'd smile and do flips all the way down."

"Then she's a slave to her programming, after all." The scientist grinned as he walked past Torchwick into the impromptu lab and cell. "This shall be even easier than I thought."


	42. V2: The Rose Has Thorns

**The Rose Has Thorns**

Mountain Glenn's sunset was a pathetic sight. Rather than provide the last glowing light of day, the golden rays of the dying sun were instead strangled and dirty by the time they reached the gnarled streets below. Adam stepped out of his final building of the day to find the wasteland tinted a grungy, dull orange just strong enough to light the main roads, yet left every shadow long, blurred and dark. Entire alleyways became corridors to darkness, and the structures surrounding them were little more than silhouettes against the dark skies.

"Ah, Mister Belladonna, nice of you to join us at last!" Doctor Oobleck called from across the street, his other teammates already gathered up ahead. "Have you found anything of note?"

"There were no signs of the White Fang." Something that still bothered Adam to no end. They were far from the main encampment, but certainly close enough that they would begin to see signs of patrol routes, potential signs of conflict between White Fang and Grimm, specialized marking and symbols, _anything._ "I assume that Grimm were the only things the rest of us found, as well?" His teammates shook their heads and shrugged.

"No matter!" Oobleck casually chucked their supplies down. "We have plenty of days ahead of us but it is clear that we will gain nothing more from this one! I was just telling the rest of your partners the same. Locate and prepare a suitable campsite for your leader and I will be securing the perimeter! Come along!" From Ruby's brief look of surprise and glances to the rest of her team, it sounded like that was just as much news to her as it was to them. With Oobleck already speed-walking away, she was left with no choice but to follow.

When Adam approached Weiss and Yang, he could much better make out their downcast eyes and the barely hidden irritation marring their faces. He could guess it was not just from their lack of findings, especially since he shared their frustrations, as well.

"I would suggest we get started." Adam kept his tone stoic: he refused to show that Oobleck's words had affected him as much as it had them. "After all, I suspect we will have to show Miss Prim And Proper how to do..." He pretended to think it over. " _Everything_ related to camping."

Weiss snorted and threw a halfhearted glare to Adam. Well, it was a start to normalcy.

* * *

Though Oobleck had said that they were securing the perimeter, he strolled along the rubble-strewn streets without even throwing a glance around his surroundings. As Ruby followed behind with her Crescent Rose in rifle form, she wondered if this was more of an excuse than anything else. After almost five minutes of silent, awkward walking, Oobleck finally stopped at an intersection. One of the buildings had been toppled over entirely, only parts of it even able to be made out amidst the piles of rock and steel. Ruby could just barely make out craters in the road crossing theirs.

"So... is this where you ask me why I want to become a Huntress?"

"I think I can glean the answer to that question, Miss Rose," He said with amusement and turned to face her. "No, I think I have a different question in mind, but I can assume you are quite curious as to why I am asking them in the first place."

Ruby stepped up beside Oobleck. "You don't think we're ready?" She guessed.

"Close, but I'm afraid that is not the case. Ruby, what does it mean to be a Huntress?"

Though Ruby let her gaze wander towards the ruins ahead, she scarcely needed more than a second to think on it. "It... being a Huntress means you'll protect people and make the world a better place. Even if everything's dark and gloomy, a Huntress is meant to light the path and make the whole world as good as possible, just like the heroes and heroines of old!"

Expecting the same disappointment or brushing off Yang had received and Weiss had grumbled about in their travels here, Ruby was surprised to see Oobleck smile. "Very good, Ruby! When I look across your teammates, however, I do not see a single one who would truly say that they will be a Huntress or Huntsman when they leave Beacon Academy. They have their own plans and I am willing to place money on the fact that none of those plans have anything to do with bounty boards and slaying Grimm. They see their training here as not becoming a Huntress or a Huntsman, but to become paragons of honor, adventure, and righteousness."

Frowning, Oobleck peered down over his glasses at Ruby. "Would you say, then, that they would still hold the title? Would a corporate heiress seeking honor or an traveler just seeking adventure still be a Huntress?"

A frown tugged at Ruby's lips: she could understand at least questioning them all on why they wanted to come to Beacon, but, to her it sounded an awful lot like he was trying to say her friends weren't truly destined for being Huntresses or Huntsmen just because they didn't have the most pure motivations. She steeled her gaze and met Oobleck's stare. "Of course! They still want to change the world for the better, they're just doing it differently!" Ruby insisted.

Oobleck's smile returned. "Precisely, Ruby: no matter what path they choose, they will still always be Huntresses and Huntsmen. Beacon is the most prestigious of the four academies due in no small part to how our headmaster recognizes this! Our teachings do not just apply to those who hunt Grimm outside the city walls, but to all those who graduate. It is a responsibility that cannot be ignored, nor can these teachings, no matter how unimportant they may seem at first glance. The sooner your teammates realize this, the better."

Ruby found herself relieved that it was not the beginnings of an argument, after all, but that relief was quickly replaced by confusion. "I... think I understand, Doctor, but, if you already know why I want to be a Huntress, what does this have to do with me?"

"While I see that your teammates know the ramifications of walking this path yet know not why they must walk down it, I see the opposite in you, young Ruby. I dare not claim that being a Huntress is not fitting of you, but you must ask yourself: are you prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to save the world? Physically? Socially? _Emotionally?_ The world can be quite dark, Ruby. Darker than any fairy tale or glorious recollection of good deeds."

Ruby winced and briefly wondered if Oobleck had seen her earlier hesitation. She gulped down her fears and, instead, smiled. "That's why we're here, right?" He must have deemed that answer satisfactory, for, with a soft smile and nod, he left the conversation to die, there. However, curiosity had begun to prick at Ruby.

"Doctor Oobleck, can I ask you something, too? Why did _you_ become a Huntsmen?"

With a chuckle, Oobleck waved Ruby along and began the trek back to their camp as dusk faded, leaving their entire world in shadows. "Take a look around, Ruby, and tell me what you see."

* * *

The raging campfire was both a blessing and a curse: though the bright light and warmth was welcome in the cold apartment living room the rest of RWAY had chosen to serve as their camp for the night, it was also the only source in the entirety of the dead city. The shadows that had been clawing at Mountain Glenn since dusk had finally claimed it, come nightfall, leaving only an inky black outside of their window that the moonlight struggled to pierce. It was clear that 'taking watch' for Yang and Weiss would primarily consist of just listening and trying not to doze off.

In the time that Ruby and Oobleck were gone, however, they'd at least managed to make the apartment more manageable: while Yang—much to Weiss' dismay—was fine with lounging on a ratty sofa, the rest of the furniture had been pushed around to serve as barricades near the door or, more often than not, shoved in front of holes in the walls and floors. Weiss practically covered half of the room in old sheets she'd found and blankets, refusing to touch the old carpets for any longer than necessary. The rest were used to hang in door frames as loose dividers, in case anyone needed privacy.

As Adam sat beside the flames, he decided privacy was what he desired most. They might've tried not to make it obvious, but Adam could see Yang and Weiss constantly turning glares upon him when they believed he was not paying attention. Frustration from Oobleck's interrogations had begun to bubble over and, desperate for something to turn that agitation upon, old tensions were the only targets left for the two. Adam gritted his teeth: it was only a matter of time before—

"What were you telling Ruby, earlier?" Yang finally brought herself to ask, her gaze laser-focused on Adam. And there it was.

Adam sighed and rose to his feet. "What we spoke of is none of your concern."

"It is _absolutely_ our concern!" Weiss interjected. "We are a team: if one of us has a problem, we all do. None of us should be hiding anything from each other."

"That changes nothing. I will tell you both again that this is _none of your concern._ "

"Yeah, sure, okay, Ruby's chatting it up only with the person that murdered someone right in front of her and it's 'none of my concern'?" Adam grimaced and, seeing that as a sign of weakness, Yang jumped to her feet with eyes steadily turning red. "Get real! You're the one who screwed her up in the first place, so I need to know what you've been doing. _Now._ "

"I had thought you were unconscious during that."

"I was. Weiss wasn't." A cold silence lingered as Adam took that in. Suddenly, their anger made far more sense, yet... they still did not know everything. They could not.

"It is not my place to tell you anything."

Yang advanced. "She's my sister!"

"All the more reason why I won't tell you!" Adam snapped. Slowly, he began to pace around Yang. "Petty jealousy is not good enough reason for me to speak a word of it towards you. Take my advice: let it die." The room's temperature steadily began to rise, and not from the campfire.

"We are _trying_ to be civil about this," Weiss called as a warning to them both. "But, let me be clear, that civility is why we are asking you first. If you won't answer, we'll be going to Ruby, next. Make no mistake, Adam, we _will_ get to the bottom of this. If it's something you'd rather not have us know, it would be better for it to come from your lips and not hers."

Weiss' words and condescending tone only earned a snort and scowl from Adam. He spun on his heels to face the heiress. "You will not ask her anything. You will not _mention_ anything to her about this," He growled. "This is not your place."

She narrowed her eyes, but did not flinch. "We warned you."

"And I am warning _you:_ neither of you know of what you are treading on." Adam hissed at them both as the emerald in his eyes steadily burned away to red and the glow of his hair began to make itself visible in the light of the flames. "Do not be foolish. The time for you to know will come, but that is not now. Back away from this issue immediately before you cause grave consequences."

Yang rolled her shoulders. "Oooh, is that a threat, big guy?" She asked with a vicious smirk holding no mirth. The campfire and crimson glow both flared.

"Maybe he's _right,_ Yang," Weiss stood and moved in front of Yang, ready to try and defuse this before it turned into an actual fight. Care as she might for Ruby, Weiss was far more prepared to simply placate Adam and just go around him later. Unfortunately, from Yang's crimson stare boring down into her mixed with equal parts fury and shock, it seemed she was much too angry to understand.

 _"Ooooh, I think I can see the fire from here!"_ Ruby calling from just outside cut off the three's words and put an end to their escalation before it could even begin. Though the three traded glares full of unspoken warnings and threats, the temperature and light both in the room steadily began to fade to normal.

"Perhaps, we should let this matter rest," Adam said without emotion. Slowly, Weiss stepped back from Yang and nodded, an unspoken 'for now' in her eyes. Yang looked like she was about to try and get the last word, but, hearing the creaking of the stairs below, just spat in anger and plopped back down on the ratty couch. Groans of the aging building alongside the light murmurs of Ruby's voice were the only things heard in the still room. The three made no attempt to even look like they were busy doing anything else by the time Ruby poked her head into the room, too busy in their own thoughts.

"Aaah, it's so much warmer in here!" Once more blissfully unaware or purposefully disregarding the aura of tension, Ruby zipped over to the flames fast enough to leave rose petals fluttering behind her and lifted her hands to the warmth. Doctor Oobleck arrived next without saying a word. He looked over their new camp, nodded in both approval and understanding of the situation, and left the four to their silence.

Glances were traded: emerald to lavender, lavender to ice-blue, ice-blue to silver, flaring crimson to ice-blue, hardened ice-blue and lavender back at crimson. Ruby looked up from the flames, and her teammates' gazes all fell elsewhere.

"Sooo," she began. "Who's got first watch?" Ruby grinned, all but pointing at herself already.

"Considering Adam's faunus nature, I believe that he would be a wonderful first watch!" Weiss offered, leaving Ruby to look over at her with puppy eyes. "The highest chance for us to be spotted, of course, would be while our campfire is at its brightest. Therefore, it would be best to get our eyes on any potential approaching patrol before they can see us," Adam saw through it immediately for what it was: an attempt to get the three girls alone so that they could interrogate Ruby.

"Yeah, that's pretty smart," Yang agreed. Ruby threw her hands up in silent frustration at her obvious claim being ignored. "I'll take watch after her so I can get some solid rest after that." More like try to wait him out so she could potentially try again while he was asleep.

Adam snorted. "Then Ruby's scope should prove adequate enough for identifying targets further out. Besides, she clearly has more than enough energy to last another few hours, wouldn't you say?" Ruby nodded excitedly. "My eyes would be best in the middle of the night, when none of you could see a thing." Yang gripped the couch hard enough for her fingers to tear the weak fabric. Adam only smirked.

"Then, first shift goes to me!" Ruby bounced up from near the flames, already looking for a nice spot to aim from.

"We've fashioned the room above into a nice vantage point. Try to avoid the holes," Adam said before the others could try and stop him. It would be difficult enough to change her mind now without looking suspicious. It then became impossible as Ruby was gone in a rush of rose petals leading to the stairs to the next floor. Without Ruby there, Adam grinned almost wide enough to bare his gums; a vicious, _victorious_ grin. Oh, how he enjoyed the collective seething of the two girls in front of him.

"I think I'll take _my_ shift after one of yours. Am I not kind, to let one of you have a full, uninterrupted rest once you are done?" Yang nearly pounced at Adam's facetious tone.

"Do not get overconfident, Adam. We have got a long time to ask Ruby. You can't be around her forever," Weiss warned as Adam strolled deeper into the room... and sat down with his back to the side of the stairs.

He crossed his arms and flicked the hat from his head. "I don't intend to, but I'll think of something, by then..." Without a way to get to Ruby that didn't cross Adam and risk confrontation, Weiss nodded for Yang to back down. They could wait.

They had all the time in the world to get to the bottom of this.

* * *

The darkness surrounding the streets must've been supernatural. It didn't matter how Ruby adjusted her scope, she only got a clear line of sight only about thirty yards in any direction before the shadows came clawing back. By sixty, she could scarcely see a thing and ninety her top-of-the-line nightvision scope could only make out darkened blurs. Ruby huffed: this was a lot more boring than she thought, especially since she couldn't even look around and see if there was anything interesting. Even the Grimm were nowhere to be seen. Every so often, she could hear a Beowolf howl, or the dull rumble of something far larger off in the distance.

No faunus. Not like she could see any if they were walking around. At this rate, White Fang could be walking down the block and she probably wouldn't see them until they started shooting! Maybe, she could start patrolling rather than staying in one place. It'd help her get the better drop on any sneaky villains! She scanned across the street a last time. Villains who wouldn't just be stealing or scheming, but watching for any intruders. Villains who probably wouldn't be fighting just to get her out of their hair, since they knew where their hideout was.

Ruby sighed as she focused on the ruined sidewalks. A Grimm finally made itself known: a simple Beowolf, crawling out from rubble and stretching itself. Try as she might, she hated the idea of having to fight the White Fang soldiers to the death. She might've been innocent, but she wasn't _stupid,_ she knew that it'd be different to fight people on their home turf rather than just stopping petty crime. Ruby knew that, as being a Huntress, killing might happen. That didn't make her like the idea.

Her finger traced over her trigger. Briefly, she tried to imagine that, rather than the mask of the Grimm, the one in her sights wore the mask of the White Fang. Could she? If she needed to, could she really just...

Another rumble echoing through the city removed her from her thoughts. Ruby shuddered and pulled her sight away from her scope. "Oookay, maybe I really do need a walk." A quick jump and burst of rose petals later, and Ruby stood atop the opposite building, watching their small campfire flicker from afar. She wouldn't be able to see it from too far away, but, a tiny patrol route was better than no patrol route. More places to keep an eye on, and more time to think. Maybe this was that emotional sacrifice Doctor Oobleck was talking about...

"Need to clear your head?" Someone called from behind her. Ruby spun around with a gasp to face the source, and found Adam standing only a few feet away.

She let out a sigh of relief. "How did you know?" Adam tapped his ear. "Oh, right. Faunus hearing. Guess I should really stop thinking out loud..."

"Besides, I did the same thing." Adam walked past her to the edge of the building and looked across at the campfire. He could just make out Yang and Weiss within, even if only as shadows at times. Adam cut straight to the point. "They're starting to ask questions."

"About Oobleck?" Ruby asked with a strained smile. Adam's silence answered her question and crushed any false hope she had, and with a loud sigh she let her shoulders slump. "I don't want to talk about it, yet..."

"To them or to me?" Ruby's silence answered his question. Adam nodded and turned to her. "That is fair. I'll join you on your patrol: sitting around with those two pouting gets tiresome."

"They mean well!" She protested as she hopped across to the next building.

"Not enough to understand."

* * *

Their patrol was deathly quiet, broken up only by the constant rumble which, over time, felt like the city itself still had a heartbeat somewhere deep in its core. To be honest, Ruby thought, it was kind of creeping her out. The worst part was that this wasn't doing a very good job at clearing her mind at all, but, that might've had to do with the fact that Adam was following a few paces behind. He meant well, but, that didn't exactly stop making him a reminder of the attack on Beacon.

As if detecting that his silent presence was on her mind, Adam walked up beside her after they'd hopped over to the next building. "I'm curious about something, Ruby: did Doctor Oobleck even bother asking you why you became a Huntress?"

Ruby sighed. "Nope, not really. He asked me if..." She tried to think of a simpler way to put what he'd said, but, her thoughts failed her. "If I was ready to make the 'sacrifices' of a Huntress." Ruby looked off across the empty streets as she spoke, looking for any signs of trouble. Nothing. Did Torchwick leave that Scroll as a trap? They were getting awfully close not to see _anything..._

 _"_ It sounds like something you are already well-acquainted with." Ruby winced a bit at Adam's words. More than he knew... "And if he had asked you? What would you have told him?"

"That I was going to be just like the heroes in the storybooks!" She turned to face him with a bright, determined smile. "Even if it's just for one person, I'm gonna light the way and save the world! The world's too dark and gloomy to just watch and do nothing."

Adam watched over her for a moment with an unreadable expression. Then, with the slightest twitch of his lips upwards, he turned and started walking to the other side of the building. "That sounds about right," He mumbled under his breath.

Unfortunately, it was too quiet for that to escape unnoticed. "Hey, what do you mean by that!" Ruby huffed and puffed out her cheek as she followed. Adam merely shrugged, amused, yet still refusing to fold even under the full weight of her pouting. After a last grumble about how that was a completely legitimate reason, she brought her rifle up and peered over the edge through her scope. From here, they could see the main street of Mountain Glenn and the river of rusting cars leading off became swallowed up by the night. Traveling down that road the entire way was deemed too dangerous: easy to spot from too many buildings, too open, too many Grimm, the reasons went on. It probably wouldn't stop any White Fang from patrolling, though, so it was on her list of things to check out, anyway.

After a few seconds of quiet, however, Ruby started becoming curious. She glanced over at Adam once, then returned to her scanning. Once turned to twice, twice to a few more. Finally, she lowered Crescent Rose, and when she looked at Adam this time, he was already curiously staring back. He was already expecting her to ask something.

"I know Oobleck probably asked you why you came to Beacon, but... Adam, why did you join the White Fang?"

* * *

 **A/N: The next chapter is really conversation/character-based-y so I had hopes I might be able to release both at the same time, however, real life issues have forced that to perhaps next week. These same real life issues, unfortunately, have pushed me towards a once every two week schedule for the foreseeable future, sorry, readers. I'll be sending out some replies to reviewers but a couple I think should be answered here too:**

 **CryptIXeeper: The butterflies are building up to be released mostly in Volume 3, with only a few escaping so far.  
**

 **CaptainToast: Ugh, yes, indeed, V1(and other things) will need to be looked at again. I'll be doing a second revision on it come the end of V2.**

 **Comments and criticism always welcome.**


	43. V2: The Rose Has Thorns II

**The Rose Has Thorns II**

* * *

Why did he join the White Fang?

Adam supposed it was only a matter of time before someone asked him. No, rather, before _Ruby_ asked him that: he knew that even in her best moods, Weiss would never purposefully bring up memories of the past and Yang was not one to pry into truly deep matters. He looked off at the darkness beyond their building and let out a deep sigh. It was the only sound between the two for some time. The city still rumbled from the movements of the unseen Grimm, and Adam mentally held onto that consistency for all it was worth to keep his thoughts straight.

"It's a complicated matter." In truth, Adam thought that Ruby had already come to believe he wasn't going to answer her at all. Considering just how fast Ruby was uncomfortably close to him with a wide, expectant grin, he supposed he was wrong. Adam calmly pushed Ruby to a respectable distance with his sheath.

"At first, I believed the White Fang to be the last organization I would join. Of course, back then, I was young and foolish: a child of a faunus miner in Atlas—Mantle, at the time—who thought that given time, we could befriend the humans, and right the 'wrongs' of our attacks on them in the Faunus Rights Revolution. All we had to do was keep working and keep quiet." He dragged the tip of Wilt's sheath across the edge of the rooftop. "Altebrucke," Adam growled. "That was the mine my father and I worked in."

Ruby furrowed her brow. "How long ago, exactly..." She regretted asking this question before she even began. "Was this?"

"Ten years ago. I was eleven, at the time." Ruby looked sick. "Oh, don't worry, Atlas changed their laws. Why, I think the 'official' age to work in the mines is fourteen, now," Adam 'reassured' her with a mirthless smile.

"It went well enough... and then," He nudged one of the bricks to the abyss below. "There was an explosion. Two hundred faunus and fifty humans were trapped, along with their special guest: the young heiress herself, Winter Schnee, who had demanded to see the operation she would one day own. In the chaos, blame was thrown everywhere: at the faunus for supposed sabotage, at the humans for their lack of regulation, and at the Schnee girl for her company likely marking them all for death." Adam snarled. "The latter were closer to the truth than they knew."

"The Schnee Dust... the SDC didn't try to help you?" Using the last name of her best friend in relation to what sounded like such an evil company didn't sound right to Ruby at all.

"If you believe the _public_ version, they did, but I'm getting ahead of myself. My father was the one who brought the two sides together and had them work to find a solution in harmony. Two months would pass before we were able to create a means to escape." Adam more forcefully shoved another brick from its perch as another rumble shook the city. "A second explosion ripped apart that plan, along with many lives. Including my father. Chaos and panic spread quickly. In my ignorance, I had come to believe that one of those humans was my friend, and in my pursuit to follow my father's ideals, I protected her and all others that I could until, to our surprise, the Schnees came to rescue us only a week later."

Ruby assumed the worst. "They'd only come because their heiress was there, right?"

Adam let out a harsh bark of laughter. "In a sense. Imagine our surprise when we were brought up and found news crews, cameras, even shareholders of the SDC all crowding around. We'd become minor celebrities in our time down there. Jacques Schnee spent the next month thanking the faunus for helping save his daughter and praising the ingenuity of the miners for _almost_ getting out on their own. The momentum of such a PR coup made it all too easy to pass new regulations, all with even the upper class cheering every step of the way." Though the events he spoke of were positive—wonderful, even—Adam had begun to pace along the rooftop, words harsh and growing louder, eyes burning bright-red.

Abruptly, he spun around to face Ruby. "Why did I join the White Fang?" His hair had begun to glow. "I joined the White Fang because after two years of thinking we were a step closer to unity, I found out that Altebrucke was planned from the beginning! The explosion that trapped us, the second that crushed my father and our hope of escaping, that _Schnee_ being trapped down there with us, _all of it_ was that rat, Jacques just getting rights groups off of his back without upsetting shareholders! Worse yet? The human 'friend' I'd made in that mine was a _part_ of it."

Ruby was left with widened eyes and covering her mouth in shock. "Weiss' dad would do that? He'd nearly kill his own daughter? Winter didn't know?" She couldn't even fathom anyone being that evil. That... _despicable._

He was quiet for a few moments, light fading as he forced his growing anger under control until, just like he used his semblance, he forced all of his bitter hate into two words: _**"She knew."**_

Silence fell over the two for a time, after that. "So... you joined to get revenge on Weiss' family?"

"No." Adam sighed. "Revenge was not everything. Not at first. I'd woken up to what the world truly was like for faunus, and that unity was all but impossible... but, just because I saw the darkness surrounding the faunus did not mean I wanted to give up. Instead, knowing that humanity would not share their light, I would just have to provide the light and hope for faunus myself. I refuse, and still do, to leave them wallowing in the gloomy shadows."

Ruby's lips twitched up into a tiny smile. "Sounds a bit familiar..."

Adam snorted, though he'd gained a soft smile of his own. "You could say that."

Another rumble rattled the city, and, this time, it was close enough to shake the building they stood on. "That's getting awfully close..." Ruby mumbled as she peered through her scope for any sign of what was moving around, out there. "You don't think that's White Fang, do you?" Try as she might, however, all she could see past a hundred yards was the black curtain of Mountain Glenn's supernatural night.

"I doubt it, but, after seeing that mutant Grimm, I can't say for sure." He nodded for Ruby to follow, then leaped from the building to the road below. They needed to be sure it wasn't coming for them.

* * *

Their trek towards the source of the shaking was mostly in silence. Ruby had first thought that Adam's tale would've satiated her curiosity, yet, as they crept around rusted cars and over mounds of rubble, it kept crawling back more and more. It wasn't very long before she realized why: what she really wanted to know wasn't just why Adam joined the White Fang. What she wanted to know was—

"What happened?" She suddenly spoke up as they used an old truck as a perch to peer deeper into the frozen traffic on the main street. Adam threw a questioning glance over his shoulder, but didn't say anything. "Well, I mean, you said you wanted to bring light, right? So, if you joined to be _good..._ what happened that made you... um..." Ruby trailed off. It wasn't as if he _wasn't_ evil before he showed up at Beacon, but, it still felt a little mean to say it right to his face. Her stomach fell when Adam just turned back to search for the source of the rumbling.

" 'If you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.' " Adam recited into the blackness. "And my mentor showed me just how deep the abyss really was. Maybe, it was the night she revealed that to me that I lost myself, maybe it came later. When I began attacking the Schnees directly, or perhaps when I first donned the mask. Whatever it was, it made it all too easy to focus on exterminating the dark rather than lighting the way." He weakly shrugged. "I suppose I'm still searching for that answer, myself. It'll make it easier to resist the temptation, once I find it, whether that's for me... or for any of us."

"Pssh, that'll be easy, anyway!" Ruby declared and hopped over beside Adam. Seeing his confused expression at her suddenly lighter mood, she nudged his side and explained, "Our friends would never let us dragged to the 'dark side' or whatever!"

Adam cocked an eyebrow. "I _did_ have friends at the time, Ruby, and that didn't change much."

"Yeah, but, did you _listen_ to them?" Adam opened his mouth to protest, but instead found himself only snorting and glancing aside. "Exactly! I bet you were just too busy trying to do everything by yourself, just like you did before we made you listen to us. It's pretty easy to slip when you're only listening to yourself. Trust me, I should know! My dad, my uncle, my sister, my teachers... my Signal friends... and I'm _pretty_ sure Zwei told me to not take on too much at once. They said one person can't go and change the world alone."

"And do _you_ listen to _them?_ "

"Nope!" Ruby chirped, completely oblivious to the hypocrisy of it.

"Good," Adam said. "Because that's one of the most foolish things I've ever heard. The history of the world is full of those who dared to challenge society and succeeded: Ghira Belladonna, Sienna Khan, the Last King of Vale, the list goes on! Remnant changes only when someone forces it to."

Ruby threw her hands up, finally feeling justified. "Exactly! That's what I tell them—wait, no! I'm trying to get you to listen to us _more!_ "

"In fact, if you listened to my mentor, even the Grimm themselves aren't exempt from this rule. _Everything_ comes down to individual might."

And just like that, Adam had the young reaper's absolute and total attention, silver eyes gleaming with curiosity. "Your mentor thinks that there's something in control of the Grimm? Like some kind of... _Ultra_ Alpha?"

"More than that. My mentor grew evasive when I questioned her more, but she told me that with enough power, Grimm become more than just intelligent. They have goals. Strategy."

"Woah... how big does a Grimm need to live to be _that_ smart?"

The intersection ahead of them exploded, the shockwave large enough to force both of them off of the truck and into the mass of cars. Ruby carefully peeked over one of them to see the road lit by a bright, orange glow: old Dust reactors caught aflame, unstable fuel sometimes still going off in sharp cracks and bursts of light. But that was not what got her attention.

What got Ruby's attention was the pillar of a Grimm leg that crushed cars beneath its foot. Surrounded by a black miasma and coated with countless bony plates almost as big as cars, an elephant Grimm taller than the buildings around it slowly dragged itself across the street, leaving craters and shattered vehicles in its wake. It shook its head slowly, and its ears bulldozed through the faces of the towers around it with no resistance at all. The groaning of both its strain and that of the world around it was almost deafening.

"Roughly _that_ large!" Adam called to her over the din.

"What _is_ that?!" Ruby shouted as she scrambled back atop the truck to get a better look at it. Not that it mattered much, really, considering how even that high she was eye-level with its knee. The beast came to a halt and, seemingly hearing them, slowly turned its head towards the two. Red, glowing eyes each as large as she was stared down upon Ruby. Suddenly, the main street was completely silent other than the crackling of flames and nervous, giddy giggles from Ruby herself. She didn't know if she was shaking from fear or excitement.

"A Goliath. One of the most powerful Grimm, if not the most powerful 'species'," Adam explained. His words that fell on deaf ears.

"Imagine how many points _that's_ worth! Come on, come on, we can totally take it!" Her finger was already inching towards the trigger when Adam bolted onto the truck and yanked Crescent Rose's barrel down. Ruby looked downright crushed, her silver eyes unusually bright as she tried her best puppy eyes on him. Behind them, the Goliath made no moves, regarding them with almost... curiosity.

"Even if we won, we would certainly be gravely wounded at best." He forced the scythe blade down into the truck. "Or dead. Most likely the latter." Unable to resist that blasted gaze of hers for too much longer, Adam instead risked a glance back towards the Grimm. The Goliath, by now, had already lost interest, looking around as if deciding just which direction it wanted to go.

Disappointed, Ruby watched the grand beast linger in the intersection. "It's... ignoring us? It did see us, right? How can a Grimm just walk away? I thought they hated humanity?" She sent off a barrage of increasingly quick questions.

"Goliaths have no interest in the individual." With great reluctance, Adam let go of Crescent Rose. "Some Grimm have certain 'tastes': Death Stalkers seek those who fear death, King Taijitu to paranoia, Nevermore to loss. The Goliath, on the other hand? Goliaths seek out one thing and one thing only: catastrophe. They, most of all, wait for hundreds of years, knowing that killing one person will only bring more. They do not seek out the destruction of Remnant because it is a source of food or primal attraction to negativity; it is a guided, coordinated attempt to extinguish civilization. But, think on this, Ruby: if the Grimm have existed alongside faunus and man since their births, society building to the point where 'catastrophe' could even be possible on a grand scale would have taken centuries."

Adam turned to Ruby. "Goliaths have been depicted since the beginning of history."

"They were... already waiting for us to build up? And your teacher thought they were already being led by the Ultra Alpha?"

"More than that. She thought they were created and led by a _Queen._ It was a slip of the tongue, and one she never repeated, but... if that's true, is there really any greater proof that one individual can change the world? One single 'person' who leads the enemy of Remnant itself!"

"Or, more importantly," Ruby added on with a wild grin. "Whoever gets to take her down!"

Adam let out an amused grunt and tussled Ruby's hair, ignoring her protest. "Don't get any ideas, yet, freshman."

"You're in the same class as us!" She huffed.

"Am I _really?_ "

"... Wait, are you—"

"I'm _saying,_ " Adam cut her off. "You have a long way to go if you can't even take on a Goliath." Behind them, the beast had finally begun to tread onward and out of view. Loud pops and roars of exploding cars followed its wake, as did clouds of dust and rubble knocked free from the buildings surrounding it. They could already feel the street rumbling from a second Goliath not too far from where the first had come.

"It doesn't look like they'll be coming this way," Adam said. "We should return to our camp before we get too distracted. Besides, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before your sister and my partner decide to come scouring the ruins for us when they realize we're both gone." He didn't realize that his words were falling on deaf ears. Ruby's attention was drawn back to the path of destruction the Goliaths were leading. She remembered the huge tracks near where she and Oobleck had talked... but there was just one set. As the flames finally petered out enough for the Goliath's dark cloud to swallow up the light, Ruby realized that if Goliaths came through the streets often, there shouldn't be so many cars that could explode at all.

In fact, there was just no way that the city could be standing with all the shaking and vibrations if the Goliaths were here all the time, and if that was the case...

"Those Grimm must've shown up here recently," she thought out loud. When she didn't hear any response, she turned around to find Adam staring off in the other direction, all but frozen in place. Ruby couldn't tell what he was thinking, but, as Adam's grip tightened on his weapon enough to tremble, she could guess he'd realized the same thing:

"If the Goliaths are here, then they can sense a catastrophe about to happen..."

"I don't understand," Adam hissed under his breath. "This was my organization. I built it from the ground up: every cell, every branch, every operation at some point passed by _my_ eyes, but we had nothing even close to planned that could potentially bring a catastrophe. The White Fang is strong, but to do something of this caliber while their leader 'mysteriously vanished' or died? It's impossible."

"They have Cinder's help, don't they?"

"Cinder's help? No, it's the opposite: whatever Cinder is planning, she is getting _our_ —" Adam flinched. "The _White Fang's_ help to accomplish it. There's no true alliance, here. She's using them for her own schemes."

"All the more reason to stop her, then!" Ruby declared. "She used Blake to try and hold you down, right? Who knows what she has over them to make them listen to her. There's no way your old group would want to do something this terrible: I-I mean, even faunus would get caught up in it, right?"

He remained silent, but his grip softened, slowly but surely. A look over his shoulder confirmed what he was already sure he would find: Ruby staring up at him with the most optimistic, innocent eyes, as if what she'd seen already was nothing at all. Yet, Adam could see a certain dullness that betrayed their supposed mirth. He wondered if that was the world's fault or his own. No matter what the answer, Adam decided he wouldn't see them dull any further; he wouldn't fail a second innocent fighter who just wanted to do what was right.

So he smiled. "You're right, Ruby." He lied. "We don't know just how deep Cinder has dug her claws into the White Fang." And he ignored the fact that the monster he helped create had been hoping and praying for an attack like this to disgrace a Kingdom for some time. "There might still be time to stop them from doing something they'd regret."

Even if he knew that for someone like Ruby, thinking they were monsters would make the inevitable deaths easier. After all, he was the same as her, a long time ago. Ruby furrowed her brow and, for a brief moment, Adam thought he had been found out. Instead, however...

"Are... you alright?"

Adam's face fell slack and he turned to face her. "Excuse me?"

Ruby shuffled in place, eyes suddenly finding the rusting surface of the truck so much more interesting than the world around them. "I-I mean, with having to go against not just a few White Fang grunts but their entire base, and that's probably way more important than just watching over some Dust robberies, so you'll have to fight your old friends and I... I, um..." She searched for words as she rambled on, clearly having not exactly planned this far ahead. "You said you built the whole branch, right? Will you be okay with... you know..."

It took a moment for Adam to truly realize that, out of all people, Ruby was worried about _him._ He let out a short, disbelieving laugh and shook his head. As Ruby only grew more worried, Adam smiled and let his gaze drop to his weapon. A shift of his thumb and a soft _click_ revealed the crimson blade within, where Mistrali symbols rose from the base. It was a blade that he knew would soon be coated in his own former comrades' blood. It wasn't as if he hadn't killed his own, before: he'd slain numerous at the docks, and he was no stranger to executing some of the lesser officers he had found as the 'Ace of Spades'. That didn't make breaking into their base—their _home—_ and likely needing to massacre them in order to prevent some grand catastrophe feel any better.

He sheathed Wilt and looked up at Ruby, smile carrying no mirth at all. "It'll be one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life... but, I think I'll be fine."

" 'Do what you have to do', right?" Ruby's words carried a hint of hollowness to them and, for a brief moment, a frown crossed Adam's face.

Refusing to show any more weakness, Adam smirked and twirled his sheathed weapon in his hand. "It isn't me that you should be worried about. Now, let's get moving." He dropped down onto another car and began to hop his way across them. By only the second, however, Adam noticed he wasn't being followed, and turned to find Ruby staring off into the darkness after him, just standing at the edge of the truck. She kept readjusting her hold on Crescent Rose, eyes downcast and mind elsewhere.

"Does it get easier?" Adam knew not if Ruby was asking him or herself: her voice was soft enough for his improved hearing to barely catch it. Still...

"In your case, I hope it never does." And yet, Ruby did not move.

"I-I think..." She took a deep breath, then smiled brightly, back to her old self. "I think I might stay here for a little bit. You know, clear my head, blow off some steam..."

Adam nodded and turned to leave. "You aren't planning on attacking one of those Goliaths, are you?" He teased.

Ruby jolted in place. "Pssh, what?" She nervously giggled and turned away. "Nooo..."

 _"Ruby..."_

"Alright, alright, I won't attack the Grimm!" Ruby pouted. "Spoilsport..." The only response she got was a chuckle as Adam walked off into the shadows.

* * *

 **"Explain."**

Adam expected Weiss and Yang to have noticed that he and Ruby were gone after only a short time, and he expected them to be angry, as well. But, he did not expect their fury to be this intense. He had only made it a few steps inside the building—not even the floor they were on—when he saw Yang waiting for him. And now he was here, held against a wall with Yang gripping his coat and both their eyes a blazing red only matched by the flames growing around her hair and the glow emanating from himself.

"You are very lucky you did not attempt to take me by surprise with this little stunt," He growled.

"I said **_explain._** You don't have Weiss to save you, this time."

"There's nothing _to_ explain. Now, let go of me, because whatever this is about, I doubt it'll be worth what will happen if you don't," Adam warned and made no attempt to hide how he aimed Wilt's hilt directly at her stomach, nor how his finger slipped around the trigger. Friend or not, he refused to be disrespected so flagrantly.

" 'Whatever this is about'? We already told you! This is about you killing someone else in front of my sister! It's about her clearly being just a little bit screwed up because of that and instead of coming to us as a team or even to her damn sister she's going to _you_ for help! So, I'm gonna ask you one more time: what did you say to her? What did you do?!" Yang roared, and her demand echoed off the walls back at them both. Quietly, she added, _"Why did you hurt her in the first place?"_

Time passed in silence. Though Yang's flames did not fade, she made no attempt to stop him, and though Adam's glow remained, he made no attempt to force Yang away.

"I'm trying to help her." Adam willed his anger down until only Yang's fire lit the room. "I'm the only one who can."

Yang's eyes widened and she gritted her teeth as if Adam had struck her. _"Why?"_

"Because," He started with a calmness that threatened to strangle Yang's flames from its frigidity alone. "This is a situation only I can understand, and though it is the last thing I ever wanted to say to her..."

* * *

His plan for Tacet was going so well.

Adam counted the seconds going by as he walked away from Tacet, savoring each one. His life was over, now, and that wretched assassin knew it: whether he chose to return to Almond to inevitably be sent against him again, or tried to attack and would be struck down, he would not live to see the next year, let alone the next month. Horrid as it may be, that knowledge left his steps light and airy even though the battle had tired him. All he had to do was wait, and he would be rid of him and still be able to avoid murdering in cold blood. Why, his semblance would even make it clean.

When Tacet roared in anguish, Adam's smile grew. When the world went silent, that smile became a wild, savage grin. It took all of his effort not to laugh at how easily Tacet was throwing his life away. With sick glee rapidly overwhelmed by the concentrated wrath of his Semblance, Adam grabbed Wilt's hilt and began to turn. Then, he smelled roses, and time felt like it came screeching to a halt. As Adam saw the blood-red rose petals flickering by him, what barely scratched two seconds felt like ten. As he heard the beginnings of a rattling gasp and knew that the field of silence had collapsed, ten seconds became twenty.

And as Tacet Avalanche fully came into his field of view with Crescent Rose cleaving halfway through his torso, weakened, black aura trying and failing to resist the deadly, bright-red glow surrounding Ruby's weapon, twenty seconds became an eternity.

And so, Adam did the only thing he could: he activated his Semblance, and finished what she had started.

Tacet's fallen halves faded into wilting rose petals before they'd even struck the ground, whirling away in a silent storm of death befitting the assassin. Behind the cloud of petals, Ruby stood horrified, frozen with her eyes locked onto Adam's. Blood, hot and bright splashed across her, so vibrant against both her pale skin and the metal of her scythe before it, too, peeled away into petals and vanished away.

It was as if Tacet never existed.

* * *

"I am the only one who can tell her that _she did what she had to do._ "


	44. V2: Planting The Seed

**Planting the Seed  
**

* * *

"So, have I convinced you?" Adam asked, staring down at Yang with no small amount of disdain. The flames enveloping her hair had died to embers, and her now-lavender eyes focused on his before looking anywhere but with growing desperation. He could practically see the thoughts racing through her mind, trying to think of anything _except_ his implication.

Her grip loosened. "W-what are you talking about, 'did what she had to do'? What did she..."

Adam scowled. "Don't play stupid." He shoved her away from him. "You know exactly what she did." Yang didn't respond to his push, instead turning away and running her hands through her hair. The temperature had begun to drop steadily, and soon, all that could be heard was her quickening breath.

"That was Ruby? _Rubes?_ No... no, that doesn't make any sense, Weiss said—"

"Weiss was in front of me. She wouldn't have had a clear line of sight."

"How do I know you're not just making this up!" Yang spun around to face him, but, rather than anger, pain and confusion marred her face. The room remained cold, her eyes a desaturated lavender. "I know Ruby, she'd probably take the fall if she knew it'd get a friend of hers out of trouble, b-but, but I'd know if she's lying!"

"Do you really believe that?" Adam silently walked past Yang without even glancing at her as he passed, leaving her to rack her mind for any excuse she could come up with to explain this. He was almost at the doorway when the temperature spiked.

"You did this." Her voice was a frozen hiss that betrayed the heat. Adam stopped. "You made her kill him!" He scowled and his grip tightened around Wilt. The temperature flared. Yang was just lashing out, Adam told himself. She didn't intend to— "This was your fault, wasn't it!"

 **"I know that, damnit!"** Adam whipped around to face Yang with eyes burning red. Trembling with wrath, the two stared each other down: Yang once more ablaze, and Adam's glow just as bright. Yet, it was not fury at each other the two saw in each other's eyes, but pain. Slowly, quietly, and with only the sound between them being that of their breaths, their anger fizzled.

"Ruby was never meant to get involved in that fight. _None_ of you were. I..." Grimacing, Adam rubbed his temples. "I had no intentions of actually letting Tacet live past that night. When you all interfered, I had to think fast. I fooled Tacet into thinking there was an opening, but, when he lunged, Ruby was faster. Worse, she'd..." Crescent Rose was glowing a bright-red. How many of her rose petals were from her semblance and how many were peeling away from her scythe, Adam didn't know. What he did know was that Ruby had managed to gather enough killing intent to turn his lessons on _defending_ against aura penetration into _using_ it.

Adam fell silent and turned his gaze away from Yang. Her eyes only screamed of her desperation to know what happened and help her innocent little sister. It was just a mistake, right now: too much force, too much speed, too much adrenaline. Were she to know that, at least in that moment, Ruby was fully ready to kill in some misguided attempt to help him...

"It was already halfway through him. All I did was make it cleaner. I believed that if I struck fast enough, she wouldn't know that it was her blow that ended it all. I was wrong. So, yes. This was _my_ fault. I'd tricked her into it, and by the time I realized Ruby was already moving, it was too late." He expected the heat to rise again, for Yang to shout and roar, anything at all.

The hiss and crackle of falling plaster and dust brought Adam's attention back to Yang: instead of lashing out, she'd slid down a wall, sitting with her legs splayed and her head against the wall. "She still could've come to me about it..."

"Could she really have?"

"I'm her sister!" Yang protested in vain.

"So your view of her hasn't changed at all? Even though she stained her hands with blood?"

Now, _that_ got a rise out of her: the temperature climbed higher. "What?! Of course it hasn't, I... she's still..." Only to pathetically collapse back into cold.

"If you knew every thought that went through her mind, would she still be your cute, innocent little sister who could do no wrong? Is she even that, right now?" Adam stalked towards Yang, every step as soft as his words. No wrath slipped into his tone, now: there was nothing for Yang to feed her own frustration with. "If she said she regretted it, but she decided that his life wasn't worth as much as one of ours, what would you have said? What if she said she couldn't bare to live with herself over the guilt? What then? Would you have told her everything is alright if she said she didn't care at all? Would you have stayed by her side if she said she'd have done it all over again?"

Adam loomed over her, now. "Would she still be your sister if she said she enjoyed it?" The mere thought had Yang leaping to wrap her hands around Adam's neck in an instant, yet, Adam did not budge. His hair didn't glow. His eyes were a cold emerald. He only stared down at her, waiting as she feebly tried to force her hands to squeeze.

"I've heard all these things, Yang. Not from her, but from others. This is something I am... unfortunately, but uniquely equipped for. It's the best I can do... it's _all_ I can do." He'd done it more times than he could count: a soldier sick and confused begging for new orders, another in a bar after a mission was completed, yet another refusing to carry a weapon in fear they would lose themselves, Ilia putting on a fake smile and acting as if nothing had happened.

Blake sitting in a tree as far from camp as possible, staring into the dark of the night with empty eyes.

He'd done the same thing each time: he handed them their mask, pulled his own away and told them with the utmost sincerity that 'you did what you had to do'. They believed it. They all did, because they could see in his eyes just how much he believed those very words. They'd believe that if someone else could be so secure that what they were doing was right, everything would be fine, if at least for a moment.

Yet, as he watched Ruby curl up and cry beside their destroyed dorm just after the White Fang assault had finally ended, there was no mask to gave her so she could hide her emotions and no mask to remove to show how those emotions still did not effect him. When he told her that she'd did what was necessary, his words held no effect, for he knew they were hollow. The only thing he could do, then, was sit beside her and wait. He was a shoulder to cry on, nothing more.

And for the first time in years, Adam had felt helpless. It was the same helplessness he could see in Yang's eyes as she tried to glare up at him, irises barely even magenta and, now, fading to gray. It was also the same helplessness that he held close to him to ensure he would help Ruby as much as possible. Yang trembled, and her hands fell to his shoulders.

 _"I'm her sister..."_ She repeated. "This is when I should've been there for her."

"... I'm sorry." It was all he could offer. The apology he had never given. It wasn't enough: Yang let her head hang low as if he'd said nothing at all. Knowing the clock was ticking before Ruby finally came back, Adam placed a hand on her shoulder. "We can't tell her about this. She will mention it on her own terms. Until then, let me handle this."

Yang said nothing.

"She doesn't think you won't understand. She thinks you'd see her differently. Ruby is just afraid, Yang. It is important that she doesn't come to believe that... it goes without saying that we cannot inform Weiss of that."

"Tiny issue with that last part..." Weiss mumbled as she moved out into the doorway leading to the stairs up to their temporary base. "You two weren't exactly quiet, down here." She did well at keeping herself composed: had Adam not known her for this long he may not have noticed the lack of light in her eyes, or just how much softer and more controlled her voice was. He pursed his lips and did not answer, though a brief panic sparked in Yang's eyes.

"Well, then," Adam started, "you should know why we cannot speak a word of what has happened here. Ruby should be here shortly; we must make sure we don't look distracted."

"How can you just stand there and talk like none of this is happening?" Weiss shot back.

Walking away from Yang, he brushed past the heiress on the way to the stairs. "Because as far as you two are concerned, it never did."

Sleep didn't come easy to any of the three, that night.

* * *

"Alright, students, it's time for a new day!" Shouted Doctor Oobleck as he darted into their combined 'campsite'. He seemingly made no notice of the haggard look of the team, where only Ruby was curled up in her sleeping bag.

"Uuuugh, it's..." Yang groaned from a ratty couch dragged closer to her sister and patted around herself for her Scroll. The light of its screen turning on was the only one in the room. Not a ray of sunlight. "Five in the morning! Can't we get another hour?" The only sign it was close to dawn was a faintly orange tint in the air.

"Nonsense! I've calculated this schedule for maximum efficiency and can assure you that by the time you are all fully awake and prepared for the day we will have just enough sunlight to continue our searches unabated! Now, eat and hurry along, I'll be back in exactly sixty-two minutes!" He casually flung a number of rations to them, the last bouncing off of Ruby's head and pulling her from her sleep with a grumble. "Be ready." And then he was gone.

"Less than ninety minutes?" Weiss whined. "How exactly are we going to manage to bathe in that time?" A jug of water, lit lantern, towels and a bar of soap were tossed from the door Oobleck left from. The heiress stared at the meager supplies, absolutely appalled. Almost as appalled as she was that the other members of her team just accepted these horrors with only Yang looking displeased at _best._

"You're joking, right?" No answer from Oobleck. "Right?!" Nothing. Weiss turned to the others: Yang brushing her hair, Adam tearing through his ration and Ruby having tossed hers at Yang and instead zipping about grabbing their things. "None of you have any problems with this?"

"Welcome to urban camping," Adam said. "You get shelter and nothing else. Food and water are scarce. Water to waste on a full bath? Let alone more than one?" He snorted. "Good luck with that."

"Shouldn't there be some kind of White Fang convoy, then? To get them water and food?" Ruby piped up with an armful of folded sheets that Weiss had thrown down the previous night.

Adam shook his head. "Considering the Dust thefts, it's more likely that they stockpiled heavily beforehand to prevent this exact thing once they were found out. And with all of... this," He waved around to the deep shadows that surrounded them at all times. "Stopping us from seeing any campfires until we're right on top of them, it makes their base difficult to find. Ingenious, really."

"That doesn't mean we can't hear them... and they have Paladins too which are _really_ noisy! I bet by the end of tonight we should at least be able to hear those... well, maybe _you_ could."

Weiss looked between Ruby and Adam talking like this wasn't a problem at all, like there were no problems to begin with, with growing disbelief and agitation. Finally, with a frustrated huff, she threw her hands up, snatched one of her cases and stormed off deeper into the building. The three looked after her in confusion.

That confusion grew when steam began to seep out from beneath one of the doors a couple minutes later.

"... Hey, Rubes, that was her Dust case, wasn't it?" Yang asked.

"The Dust case with every kind under the sun, yeah."

"Including water and fire?"

Ruby gasped. "... She _wouldn't._ "

"Are you saying a heiress wouldn't spend hundreds if not thousands of lien using high-quality Dust to take a bath while we 'suffer'?" Adam peered over at the two with a smirk.

"... Weiss!" The two sisters shouted while they bolted over and banged their hands on the door. "Weiss, you better let us get our turn!"

* * *

Penny was not an arrogant girl: she expected to be captured, one day. Her father might not have, and General Ironwood definitely never considered the thought, but Penny knew just after spending a few days in the Academy that there were weaknesses in her tactics that could allow her to fall to a reasonable threat. Sure enough, it had happened. A swarm of soldiers, Ciel disabled, audio sensors unable to clue her in on the nuances of their movements, and then nothing.

She expected imprisonment to be dark and dull: standard military protocol had told her what to do and what to expect when being interrogated. Harsh questions, low lights, scowls and noise and anger, meager rations if they didn't figure out what she was... and if they did, dirty lab, harsh breaks into her code, threats, to be treated like a thing. Awful, terrible things.

Penny blankly stared from her table at Torchwick lighting up yet another cigar near the entrance while Doctor Merlot typed away at a terminal linked to her back by numerous wires. She was without restraints, aura-enhanced senses easily picking up signs of Merlot's own aura flowing around him and to the terminal. She could feel Merlot searching through her code, but it was... strangely soft. It was more like being back in her home lab, where her father and other creators already knew her code and had no need for painful shortcuts or callous overwriting, with the strange addition of it being difficult to track just what code Merlot was looking at.

She didn't have her restraints. It was a false freedom, knowing Torchwick had the remote that could jolt her systems, but it was still _some_ sort of freedom. This wasn't what Penny expected at all.

"Another cigarette, Torchwick? I told you, no more of those in the lab! You're getting ash everywhere!" Merlot chastised him without even throwing a glance in his direction.

"What? I gotta do something while I'm waiting for you to stop reading and actually get things done."

Merlot snorted. "I've gotten much more done than you think. Wouldn't you agree, Penny?"

Penny blinked. "... Yes, Grandfather?"

"Please, just call me Grandpa, I don't mind."

The robotic girl looked unsure, but after looking between the two for a couple seconds, shrugged. "Okay, Grandpa." Merlot turned to look back at Torchwick with an expectant gleam in his eye and a smug smirk.

Torchwick wasn't impressed. "Congratulations, you, what, changed what your name is in her system?" He asked and idly blew a puff of smoke over the scientist's head.

With a sigh, Merlot rubbed his temples and turned back to Penny. "Penny Poledina, WMBB-01, password: ashes-to-ashes." He waved to the android. "Go on, ask her one of your silly questions."

Torchwick raised an eyebrow. "Alright, kid, how's this: what do you actually want to do with your life?"

Penny blinked and looked to Merlot, who nodded. "I want to become a student at Beacon Academy."

"No, you don't," Merlot interrupted.

Penny looked surprised and leaned for. "Why not? I have friends at Beacon Academy, even if it... isn't such a safe place, anymore." She sighed, then pursed her lips. "T-then again... Weiss came from Atlas, maybe I could convince her to come with me back home. I don't want to leave my friends here in Vale at all. They could come with, right?" Merlot nodded, and her eyes lit up.

"Penny. What do you want to do with your life?"

"I'll ask Weiss and Ruby if they can join me in Atlas! Then everyone will be happy!"

Merlot turned to Torchwick again. The crime lord took a long drag from his cigar and shook his head. "So you _don't_ want to go to Beacon?"

"Not if my friends aren't safe there."

"You changed her code, right?" Torchwick asked, blowing out a ring of smoke and tapping out his ashes as Merlot nodded and grit his teeth at his lab growing dirtier. "I thought it'd be a lot more... ya know, 'yes and no' than that? She wants to go to Beacon, you say she doesn't, bam, now she doesn't want to go to Beacon!"

"Tsk tsk, you don't really think someone built on my code would be so inadequate, do you? No, when receiving direct orders, they become thoughts that she takes into consideration. Inevitably, she will follow them, yes, but, she will still think logically, rationalize and potentially even question them before doing so. Just like a real girl."

"I can still hear you two," Penny grumpily brought up, annoyed that she was being talked about like she wasn't even in the room.

"Disregard and continue disregarding everything I and Torchwick have said after the code was entered until exit password is used."

"I don't negotiate with enemy combatants!" The robotic girl huffed and turned her head away from the two.

Torchwick rolled the cigar between his fingers, smirking. "Yeah, sure, she's definitely listening to those orders of yours. Right, Penny?" The girl was silent. He arched an eyebrow. "Penny?"

"Not. Negotiating." She remained stock still.

"And coincidentally, she'll just happen to forget what we said once we're done." The scientist grinned maliciously. "It's a brilliant illusion of free will, is it not? Gepetto did such a wonderful job making that android it almost brings a tear to my eye." Merlot pretended to wipe at his only 'real' eye, not noticing the disgusted stare Torchwick was throwing Penny's way.

"So, as far as she knows, she didn't even get orders—"

"Unless the person who instructed her desired them to be seen as orders, that's right. All the easier for her artificial intelligence to rationalize."

Torchwick felt like he'd swallowed the rest of his cigar. "Switch her back." Merlot looked back at him with amusement. " _Switch her back._ This is getting a little too creepy for my tastes."

"So prudish..." He muttered under his breath, then waved off towards Penny. "Penny, accept password: dust-to-dust. WMBB-01, end, delete changes." Penny's shoulders slumped slightly and her eyes began to occasionally flick over to the two criminals.

"So here's my question: why?"

"Ah, that is what we are here to find out! 'Why' does she exist? For what purpose would anyone want to desecrate the sanctity of life by theorizing how to create this false girl, let alone actually go through with it! _I_ held a love for science when I began my research into this and wanted to test my limits, but I hold grave doubt they had such innocent reasons," Merlot went on as if Penny simply wasn't there. The girl turned a glare down at the scientist and tightly gripped her arms, but said nothing.

Torchwick only snorted. "I'm gonna go ahead and guess that if I asked _you_ , Penny, you'd tell me that it's classified, wouldn't you?"

"... I'm sorry, but that information is classi—" Penny's eyes widened and went dark. Without warning, she toppled over onto the lab table like a puppet with its strings cut.

The crime lord's cigar nearly fell from his mouth as he looked over at Merlot in a mix of shock and agitation. "What did you do?! We can't _break_ her, Merlot!" To his surprise, however, even Merlot appeared surprised by it, holding his hands off of the terminal as if even touching it would make matters worse. His eye scanned over the code: all he'd done was open up another file...

"Oho? What have we here..." His cybernetic eye brightened. Slowly, he reached back down and began to scroll through, ignoring Roman. "The file placed her in hibernation when looked at. Now, what reason would they have to do that?" Merlot pointed to the screen. He was asking a rhetorical question, of course, as he knew exactly why: the name 'Maiden' repeated many times throughout the file.

Roman grinned wildly. "Looks like we found why they keep her around..."

It was an inactive set of protocols for if a set of conditions designated 'Maiden' were true.

* * *

"Something's not right, here," Adam muttered atop a ten story building, one of the last standing this high in the area, and just tall enough for him and his team to get a good line of sight on the surrounding region. With the sun high in the skies on a cloudless afternoon, the shadows only made it slightly difficult to see at long distances.

"The fact that Yang and Weiss suddenly won't let me go three seconds in combat without trying to come 'help'?" Ruby grumbled as she watched the roads ahead with her scope. Adam grimaced: while he was hoping that the two would indeed act as if their little conversation had not occurred until Ruby was ready, he was still dealing with teenagers. The two proceeded to barely leave Ruby alone for more than a couple minutes at a time, and one would always be conveniently close by in combat.

"Yes, but," He looked down to the street below them where Yang was jumping up to get their attention beside Weiss and Oobleck. She shook her head and waved her hand. Nothing. "I'm referring to the fact that even though we are more than halfway to the camp of a small army, we haven't seen signs of any activity. No tracks from convoys, no casings from encounters with Grimm, no patrols, not even trash."

Ruby waved back to Yang and swung Crescent Rose to rest at her back. "Think we're going into a trap?"

"Probably." Adam turned and walked towards the rooftop entrance with a pleased smirk. "It'll be a hard battle, but they'd be giving the location of their base to us on a silver platter by doing that."

"It could be worse, though, right? You said they already lost one of their best assassins." Ruby winced as the words left her lips. Adam stopped at the door. He wasn't sure whether to be distressed or proud that she could at least find some sort of silver lining in this situation.

"A fair point." He replied simply, and descended to the ground floor. Ruby followed close behind, pausing only once at the door and looking around. She felt like someone was watching her...

* * *

Mercury Black froze in the window of a precariously-leaning skyscraper far behind the group, binoculars held up to his eyes in one hand, a potato chip an inch away from his mouth in the other. Ruby squinted in his general direction, shrugged, and jogged out of sight. He let out a quick sigh of relief and tossed the chip into his mouth. The bright sun and clear sky made it all too easy for RWAY and Oobleck to scout out the region for irregularities, for it only left the city covered in shadow as if a cloud perpetually blocked the sunlight. Coincidentally, this also made him, clad in grays and blacks, perfect for scouting of his own.

He flicked another chip behind him to be snapped up by the glowing, sea-green maw of one of Doctor Merlot's twisted Beowolves. Mercury, frankly, hated the things, but, better obeying him than trying to eat him, right?

"Looks like they don't even have a clue. 'Cinder give me the go-ahead?" The Beowolf growled in affirmation. "Sweet. Hey Merlot, if you can hear me in there, go ahead and tell her there's no doubt that they aren't trying to stop us. She's aaaall free to go have some fun with our catgirl friend." He zoomed in closer to the group, namely the redheaded, silver-eyed girl springing out from the front door, already grinning and waving them along.

"And, meanwhile, I'm gonna have a _lot_ of fun, with that one."


	45. V2: Curiosity Killed The Cat

**Curiosity Killed The Cat**

* * *

 **A/N: Kept you waiting, huh?(Full explanation at the bottom)  
**

* * *

Blake was not a stupid girl. She may have made her fair share of poor decisions, and she could admit to herself that she might not be the best at reading others, but she was not a stupid girl. Team Symbol was quickly beginning to have her on edge. The... oddities of her new team did not pass without her notice: their secretive nature, their apparent conflict with her former partner-in-crime's team, even the fact that, for all their strength in combat, Blake didn't recall seeing them more than a couple times in Haven. Yet, every logical question she mentally asked herself was countered by a perfectly logical answer. The biggest was the simplest: she was just being paranoid.

By all means, that should've been the end of it, but she just couldn't get rid of this feeling that something was wrong with these three. Her fellow teammates all had their little quirks: Mercury cared more about people's footwear than the people themselves, Cinder was one of the worst neat freaks she'd ever seen and Blake was quite certain half of the items Emerald returned home with each week weren't bought, but, she was secretly a faunus and an ex-terrorist, so she wasn't one who could judge others.

The few occasions she'd spent time with her team left her feeling it was more like a family than a unit: mainly through Cinder trying to keep her rowdy 'children' in check. They had a closer connection than her team, that was for sure. Maybe, that was why she didn't find herself wanting to get too close to them: it must've hurt them a lot to lose a close teammate, just as much as it hurt her to lose her team. Blake didn't want to replace whoever that was. It wasn't just running away from getting too close... at least, that was what she kept telling herself.

It was the small things, though, that had been getting to her. Like the fact that they'd come here for the Vytal Tournament yet had never trained together as a full team, even once, or how, even then, every time she saw them fight or fought alongside one of them in combat classes, they battled with ease. Blake didn't have a very high opinion of Hunters and Huntresses, but there was no way that their opponents should've been this weak. Nor should any of Team CEMB have been so easily able to adopt her into tactics that would've been impossible without her Semblance and fighting style.

Like they'd expected her from the beginning.

Yet, no matter how hard she looked, beside these oddities, they seemed like perfect fits for her: realist, capable, older students who knew each other's boundaries—alright, Mercury could use some work—and fought well together. All she truly had to go on was the fact that Adam's team seemed to despise them, as much as they tried to hide it. Only the Schnee would remain cordial enough to speak with them if encountered, but, Blake was sure that was because she had more than her fair share practice hiding her disdain of those she disliked. Like faunus.

And what happens when she had the perfect chance to ask: when she and team RWAY were alone together, getting lunch after Mercury's bout with Pyrrha? Awkward fumbling from the redheaded kid, a sense of tension in the air and Adam just waved it away.

 _"Nothing important."_ Like him looking like he wanted to cut down her leader with his eyes alone was nothing. Like she couldn't see the faint disappointment in Cinder's eyes whenever team RWAY abruptly would move as far away from them as possible whenever their gazes so much as met. Like she couldn't see Yang's scowl at her entire team that vanished the second the blonde realized she could see her, or Mercury's smug little smirks back at them. They were hiding something from her. _Everyone_ was hiding something from her. It was so frustrating! Infuriating, even!

"My, my, I hope everything's alright..." Blake took a sharp breath as a voice cut the silence in their room. She hadn't even realized someone else had entered the room, let alone walked all the way over to her side of the room. Cinder Fall stood tall and proud beside her bed with a curious look in her eye, as the young faunus sat there, hands clutching an open book hard enough to crinkle the pages.

Blake cleared her throat. "I-I'm fine, really, Cinder. I was just... concentrating."

A melodic chuckle escaped Cinder. "It must be quite the story to get you that worked up. You were trembling, when I got here."

"It is," Blake said with a forced smile and left it at that, turning her eyes back to her book and trying her hardest to ignore Cinder's piercing gaze just barely visible over it. Cinder was the center of all of that mystery, and it didn't help that she was almost as quiet as she was. Her suddenly deciding to have a chat with her threw up all kinds of red flags.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Cinder let out a soft sigh and leaned down. "I'm beginning to get the feeling that you don't trust me, Blake," she said with a teasing tone and chuckled once more when Blake tensed up. "Don't worry, I'm not upset. Trust is to be earned, not simply given."

"It's not your fault. After my last team..." Blake trailed off, then just shook her head. "Nevermind."

Cinder waved it off. "I understand. I also understand why you wouldn't want to ask us." She sat down beside Blake and, though her mind warned her of how strange this all was, her instincts were already soothed by her voice. "After all, 'you start a question, and it's like starting a stone. You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stone goes, starting others,' " she recited.

Blake's eyes widened, and she smiled. "You've read this, too?" She shifted the book in her hands, _The Man With Two Souls_.

Cinder raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Oh, don't look so surprised. When I was younger, I spent much of my free time with my face in a book. Though, these days, I prefer the tales of the past. It's... intriguing, really, to see that, often, reality is much stranger than anything fiction could match."

" 'Reality' is often much darker than fiction, as well." Blake let her gaze drop to the floor. "I prefer at least a glimmer of light, in times like these."

"Quite ironic, considering what you're reading," Cinder teased. Blake's book wasn't exactly known for its happy ending. Or middle. Or beginning, for that matter.

She smiled and rolled her eyes. "It's what this one is about that's important to me, right now."

"The eternal conflict between man and beast," Cinder said and tapped her chin. "I'm quite curious, where did you get it from? I know a lot of places stopped selling it after faunus began taking issue with its 'implications' of their race."

"An old friend," Blake responded with a sigh. The news of Tukson's murder still hurt, sometimes. "He wasn't too happy to lend me it."

"Faunus?" Blake nodded. "Understandable, I suppose. I've personally always taken a keen interest in faunuskind, myself." Blake subconsciously gripped her book tighter: she didn't like where this was going. "Like I said, I prefer tales of the past to those of fiction, and the history of faunus has been intertwined with humans since the very beginning of civilization... no matter how much one side tries to reject that fact. I sympathize with them, really."

"I'm not sure if they would enjoy your pity."

Cinder frowned and glanced aside. "No. No, they don't. But, as I said, trust must be earned, not given. Humanity has quite a lot of earning to do: you don't get many friends from oppressing an entire race and scrubbing their history for a single man's words."

Blake arched an eyebrow. " 'A single man'?"

Cinder's frown turned upwards into a smile. "Did you ever notice that, for all the major theories on the origin of man, not a single one theorizes that faunus came at the same time? In fact, there aren't many theories on the origins of faunus, at all."

She'd changed the subject. The faunus narrowed her eyes. "Probably because it would hurt humans too much to admit that they might be equal."

"Close. I think the reason so much has been done to hide the faunus' history is because, were they to learn where they truly came from, they'd never want to so much as look at another human again. So much has been taken from them..." Cinder sighed. "Have you ever heard of the myth 'The Emerald Cage'?"

Blake frowned. "Cornerstone of 'humanity's burden' to save faunus. I'm... familiar."

"A witch who created the faunus out of the goodness of her heart, fighting against a king who wanted to have them trapped, minds erased by his magical, emerald cage. The faunus reduced to little more than a tool of war and damsel in distress it what should've been their most important hour." Cinder turned to Blake. "Frankly, I think it's true." Blake twisted to look at her in a mix of offense and disgust, yet was caught off-guard by Cinder's eyes. In those amber eyes, all she saw was the utmost sincerity, absent of the hate or condescension towards faunus she expected.

"Wh... what do you mean?"

"Every legend begins somewhere, does it not? Through all of my readings, I have found that the Emerald Cage is only an exception in that it has more truth than most. When mankind was on the brink of darkness long ago, a witch scorned by humanity and besieged by Grimm saved the nature she held dear by giving them not just power, but human form. It was the birth of faunus. When the King of Mankind heard of this, he claimed these faunus to be the same as man, and lent his help to them. With their help, the Grimm were forced away from man's borders for the first time." Cinder sighed softly and shook her head with a smile.

"But, humans will be humans. The moment the Grimm were gone, the King grew paranoid of the faunus and their beloved queen. He turned on the faunus. The witch had broken the laws of magic, he said, and demanded that the faunus be wiped out. The King tried to bring the witch to his side, but, she refused to listen. So the king took a different route: he fed lies of the witch to his people until they were full of rage, and demanded that any faunus they see be captured in his invention: an emerald cage that would strip them of their aura and turn them back into animals. Permanently. Were it not for the interference of the King's own apprentice, he may have even succeeded." Cinder frowned. "Unfortunately, unlike the myth, it is not a story with a clean ending. The war started between man and faunus never truly ended, only changed forms."

Blake parted her lips a few times to speak, but it took many seconds for her to form a response at all: "I... I don't understand, so you're saying that a 'witch' created the faunus, and the big secret to their origin is in a _human supremacist_ fairy tale?" She was caught between total disbelief and curiosity. Normally, Blake would've found herself rolling her eyes over something this farfetched, but, her leader sounded truly genuine. It was something Cinder truly believed in, and her words left her subconsciously craving for just a little bit more understanding. It was too much to take in.

Somewhere in the back of Blake's mind, she knew her acceptance was from how she recalled a time when Adam, even Ilia, spoke the same way about their revelations about the faunus. How they held that same tone.

"It wouldn't be the first time a kernel of truth was hidden away in the one place no one would believe it: the enemy's viewpoint. After all, you would know that original war of extermination by another name: the First Crusade."

"That was the faunus finally carving a place in the world, not the humans attacking _us_!" Blake was so quick to lash out that she never even noticed her slip of the tongue.

"The winner writes history. When it became clear humanity couldn't win through strength, the King of Mankind simply decided to rewrite history to fit what he needed." Cinder checked her nails as if they weren't speaking of centuries of beliefs being incorrect. "Wouldn't it be easier to rally hatred if your foe attacked _you_ first? Keep enough voices quiet and only the ones you want heard, and the story of the world can be rewritten as much as you like..."

This was madness. This was against logic! Yet... why did she _want_ to believe her? Was it because it'd justify her old actions? Another 'revelation' to clutch onto that would let her keep on her current path without questioning it? Or was it just the smoothness of Cinder's tone, and that gleam of interest in her eye? Realizing Cinder was staring expectantly at her, Blake tore her gaze from the woman and looked down at the book whose words now seemed so faded and shallow. "... If the faunus were to know about this..."

"They would search for their Queen and humanity, now fractured, would be toppled with ease," Cinder said simply. "It's the exact reason those who know try to hide it."

Blake furrowed her brow. "There are others? The Queen is still alive? How?"

Chuckling, Cinder patted Blake's knee. "In due time, I shall tell you. I'm sure you don't completely believe me, but I'll give you all the proof you need." Cinder's Scroll buzzed, and she flashed a knowing smile. "Later." She slipped the Scroll out, and Blake could catch a peek at the name: 'M'. "Ah, I have to take this. We'll talk soon, Blake. Just think on it, and be sure to keep an open mind..."

And then Cinder left Blake alone in the room once again with more questions than she had even thought possible. It didn't make sense, but Cinder sounded as genuine as could be. No racism or ignorance tainted her words. She held no reason to believe this was trickery or malice. It was impossible to hide something this massive, but, it wasn't as if the human-run governments weren't well-versed in masking their mistakes.

It couldn't be true, yet, how many times had she refused to believe her ex-partners on something diabolical the humans had done, only for it to turn out true or even _worse_ than what they'd said?

How many times had her first instinct been wrong?

* * *

"Uh, hey, guys? What time is it?" Yang piped up from the back of the group.

Oobleck flipped out a pocketwatch and squinted. "Approximately five p.m."

"Seriously?" They were dreadfully close to the center of the city, now, where the majority of the fighting had taken place. Even this early, darkness strangled even the smallest ray of sunlight: another clear day this deep inside lent only enough light to match nightfall. The streets were almost completely covered in debris, cars were crushed and thrown aside, and jagged metal was a constant menace. The buildings began to canter dangerously to one side, the wind earning groans of strain.

It was like a different city altogether.

A howling wind cut through them, sending shivers down the group's spines. The previous nights' revelations had left the group on unsteady ground. With the feeling of walking through ground where millions died fully weighing down on them, they'd barely spoken a word to one another in hours. Weiss watched her Scroll, the green dot on her map dutifully marking where Penny was held—or at least, so she thought. Though they were now close enough for the blue arrow marking herself to be visible nearing Penny's location, there wasn't a sign of the White Fang. Nothing but Grimm and shadows.

Ruby tried her hardest to ignore the scattered bones that had survived the decades growing more and more prevalent. This was the graveyard of thousands.

Finally, Oobleck stopped. "I am sorry to say, Miss Schnee, but considering the total lack of White Fang activity and the growing danger we will inevitably face traveling this deep into the city's core, I believe that we should consider searching in other districts. The chances that this is a form of trap grows higher with every minute."

Weiss' eyes widened. "I-I am fully trusting in my decision, Professor—"

"Doctor."

" _Doctor._ I am certain my team would agree that this is the path that will lead to our objective!" She and Oobleck both looked around to the rest of RWAY. Determined, the three nodded.

Doctor Oobleck hummed to himself and adjusted his glasses. "So be it, we will continue until the end of the day and no further! As your chaperone I still carry the executive privilege to bring you out of this region the moment your fighting capabilities are not fit for the threat, so be sure to remember that. You do this at your own risk."

Any prospective reply was quickly snuffed out by a sharp, deafening cawing from above. A giant Nevermore slammed down on the building ahead, eyes like burning coals standing out in the dark as rubble and dust fell to the streets below. Smaller Nevermores circled around it high above, visible as only red stars and glimmers of white against the darkened skies. A last one merely the size of a raven stood on the Nevermore's shoulder, its eyes glowing a distinct, cold sea-green.

"The Grimm they bring to bear are far greater than before," Adam commented as he set his hand on Wilt's hilt. "It reeks of desperation. We're getting close to their base."

Ruby grinned and unfolded Crescent Rose, just glad to get her mind off of the dead and decaying city surrounding her. Suddenly, Yang swept out in front of her, arms raised and her position coincidentally leaving her right in front of Ruby to defend her. Even Weiss had almost imperceptibly shifted to block paths to their young leader, noticed only by the keen eye of a sniper. She groaned. "Yang, Weiss, I can protect myself, you know! What's gotten into you two lately?"

"Pssh, what? Nothing!" Adam cringed at Yang's horrid attempt at brushing it off. He realized that telling them anything at all was likely the worst mistake he'd made, thus far.

Luckily, Weiss was there to salvage the situation. "Protecting the leader is a viable strategy! Since you have the longest range, we could be your vanguard while you lay supporting fire."

" _Supporting fire?_ " Ruby whined. "I'm, like, the opposite of that! I'm way better with my scythe!"

"Well, yeah, but against the White Fang—"

"Pay attention!" Adam shouted to interrupt Yang before she managed to make it any more obvious. "They're coming!" Scarcely a second after, the first of many feathers had already begun piercing the ground ahead of them.

* * *

"Is that right..." Cinder murmured to herself with a sly smile, having found a nice, quiet little corner of the academy to take her call in. "So, the purpose they forced upon her is even more diabolical than I thought."

 _"Absolutely. This Maiden Protocol is a total override kept hidden even from her. My understanding is incomplete, however, from what I can gather, it only allows her to take commands from her administrator—General Ironwood—and, otherwise, has her place all priority on her survival. At the moment, however, it does not look like she actually has any of that_ _Maiden..._ _magic..."_ He spoke as if the thought of magic was a curse of its own. _  
_

The half-Maiden scoffed. "She was right, after all: the Wizard has lost his way. He'd betray the very meaning he supposedly placed on the title of Maiden just for his own goals, even if he'd have to enslave an innocent soul to do so. How... _pitiful._ " She sighed. "We have what we need. Wipe her memories. Prepare for the next phase of the plan. All tasks at hand are cleared..." Cinder snapped her Scroll shut and took a look around. Though few were near the building she had decided to take her call in, a window let her watch the courtyard outside and the many students hurrying along.

She couldn't wait until she could watch this all burn.

* * *

"This doesn't make any sense!" Weiss hissed as she stared down from her perch atop the rubble of one of many buildings. In the city center, barely anything above a single story was left standing, let alone the skyscrapers they were becoming used to, and this was no exception: their new campsite was more a collection of brick and gnarled steel than a true building. They were only a few blocks away from Penny's location, now, and not only were there _still_ no signs of the White Fang, but they'd begun to find weapons of the former defenders of the city. Decades-old and no doubt mostly inoperable, but the fact that they still laid scattered and rusting away meant that nothing had come to scavenge for them.

If a hiding army didn't even spare them a glance for spare parts and salvage, there was no way that they could be here. Yet, they weren't struck by waves of Grimm or sniper fire. No attempts to pick them off, no scouts, nothing. Worse, this close, Weiss could see that Penny's location was changing, ever so slightly: someone was moving it, so it wasn't just a Scroll left behind to trap them.

"It does if we actually are walking into a trap." Adam stepped up beside her.

"Why would they set a trap so far from their base of operations that they would be unwilling to take further resources?"

"Potentially, to lure us into a false sense of security. Make us think that they aren't waiting for us after all. Make us think it's genuine. It's not the most tactically sound decision, but, Almond's strength was in his combat, not his strategy."

Weiss stared out at the darkness beyond their perch. It was only six in the afternoon, and rather than sunset, it looked more like a moonless, starless night. Almost total darkness laid beyond their campfire's reach. "Do you really think it's just a setup?"

"Perhaps. Either way, we win. Tacet was one of our..." He frowned as Weiss glanced over at him. " _their_ greatest weapons. He died with relative ease. Whoever they have down there, _if_ there is anyone down there, is in no way going to be a challenge for us and the doctor combined. That means we gain information."

The heiress crossed her arms. "And just how do you plan on getting that?"

Adam snorted. "Speaking of Tacet," he began, "just what do you think you and Yang think you're doing? If you think you're clever enough to escape my notice, let alone Ruby's, you must be insane."

"We're trying to be good teammates!" she hissed back. "You didn't really expect us to just sit by and let _you_ handle an issue this sensitive, did you?"

"... I'll disregard the slight, if only because you're correct. I didn't. I expected it to be a stopgap measure at least until we could get to Beacon, but I didn't think you two would be as transparent as glass trying to hide it."

"Oh, come, now." In response, Adam only motioned back towards their campfire. Yang and Ruby were happily chattering away about something, but, it was not the words that were important. It was the grin Yang had that was just a little too wide, a gaze just a touch too intense, voice too happy. She was trying far and away too hard trying not to actually ask about what she wanted to. Worse, when she turned away to grab her canteen, Ruby's smile fell and her shoulders slumped.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby must've caught the two watching, for she bounced right back into a bubbly grin and waved over to the two. Adam nodded to her, while Weiss put on a bright smile and waved back. Ruby's brow furrowed a little, but Yang dragged her back into their conversation before she could think any longer.

"Even Ruby can see through your act." Adam chuckled. "Not like it's difficult, though."

"I wasn't acting!" Weiss growled back. "How would you even be able to know?"

"Because you're never that happy, _Ice Queen_." Adam walked off to the campfire, leaving Weiss flustered behind him.

"Wh-what?!" She stomped over in pursuit. "I absolutely _can_ be happy!"

"Without a drink or two?"

"Ugh, you are just unbelievable, you know that!"

"That wasn't a no."

"Uh-oh," Yang said with a smirk to Ruby while the two arguing partners sat down. "Sounds like another lover's quarrel."

* * *

Ruby couldn't take it anymore. Something had happened, and she knew it did: Yang was getting even more overprotective than normal and Weiss was being so nice that even she began to grow cautious of it. Even Adam had changed, arguing with the two about something almost every time that he didn't think that she could hear them. It was starting to drive her crazy! She hadn't even gotten anything worse than a scratch against all these hordes of Grimm, in fact, she had the highest score, so far! Unless... unless one of them _let_ her have the highest score...

As Ruby tried to scan their surroundings in the overwhelming dark of Mountain Glenn's night during her turn as watch, she found her finger nervously tapping against Crescent Rose. Was it about Oobleck's questions? Did Oobleck tell them something? It couldn't have been her combat skills, so... so...

The night felt twenty degrees colder. Pale and with wide eyes, Ruby could hear her fears whisper to her: _what if they knew?_ She whipped herself around to look down at their campsite, and swore that she saw their sleeping bags move. Ruby gulped, crouched down at her perch and tried to focus on watching the road through her night vision scope, but, it grew all too difficult with her hands trembling. Adam had said that they were starting to press for questions: did he tell them? Yang? Weiss, too? Did Oobleck really know what had happened when he asked her about sacrifices?

But then, why hadn't they told her? Were they afraid to? Maybe, they thought she'd already changed, that she couldn't be trusted... what if they didn't tell her because they were just thinking of a lie to tell her? Like 'we still think you're a good person, even though you murdered someone'?

Ruby stifled a groan and held Crescent Rose tighter to herself. The night was cold, yet she was sweating. After a few hurried looks back at her team to see if they were moving or if it was just an illusion of the dying flame, she jumped up to her feet. Maybe, she thought, just like before, she just needed to walk around. Patrol a little! Focus on anything other than if her team knew she was a killer or not...

Taking deep, slow breaths in a futile attempt to calm herself, Ruby carefully climbed down the pile of steel and stone to the streets. Keeping her scope to her eye was the only way she could see much at all without the light of the campfire. It was dark to the point where she could barely even see herself. At least, Ruby thought, if there really were White Fang creeping around here, they probably wouldn't know she was around until they were right next to her, too. Always being sure to keep the location of their campsite in mind, Ruby crept around the roads and tried to clear her mind.

Instead, a previous question came clawing back: if she were to find someone, if she were to find a White Fang member about to call her or her friends' positions out, even though it could kill them, could she pull the trigger? Ruby subconsciously envisioned a soldier patrolling just like her in a long-abandoned park nary a block away, finger once more twitching on the trigger before she paused. It wasn't subconscious.

There actually was a White Fang soldier patrolling in the plaza ahead! In fact, Ruby noticed, there was a second stepping out from behind some rubble! She all but threw herself behind a rusted car and desperately tried to search for them through her scope again.

 _"Did you hear that?"_ Ruby could hear one of the soldiers ask.

 _"Ignore_ _it,"_ the second grumbled, _"it was probably just this city falling apart even more. Can't wait until in Vale..."_ She followed the two's movement until she realized that they were walking straight towards her. Ruby gulped and made sure to keep her steps quiet as she crept into the wreckage of one of the largest buildings still standing beside her. At the least it was recognizable as one, Ruby thought as slipped through the decrepit rooms in search for a window or a vantage point that'd let her keep an eye on the White Fang without being easily spotted, herself.

Something struck the stone floors behind her. Ruby spun to face it, but, even peering through her scope, she didn't see signs of anyone else. The sound echoed again, and following it brought her to a hallway. Mountain Glenn suddenly felt all too silent as she crept down the hallway towards the source. Ruby scanned the rooms, her world restricted to the greens and blacks of her night vision scope. The noise did not come a third time.

She needed her team, and fast. Ruby ducked into a ruined room where she was sure no one could see her and finally brought Crescent Rose down before fumbling for her Scroll in the dark. Silently, she sighed as the dim light flickered on and she dialed up her team.

The sound of something striking stone came once more, from behind Ruby. She spun to face it, but, with only the faintest light emanating from her Scroll, Ruby didn't see the kick flying at her head until it was an inch away. Sent sprawling on her back with both her Scroll and Crescent Rose clattering to the ground around her, Ruby groaned and grabbed at her face, already feeling heat well up in her nose. Old lessons from Beacon shot to her mind as she instinctively rolled onto her side and out of the way of an unseen strike that cracked the stone where she once laid.

Aura pooled to her eyes, trying valiantly to improve her sight just as it did her speed and strength. In almost absolute darkness, even with her channeling a fair bit of her aura into her sight, it barely let her see anything more than a couple feet away from her, but, something was better than nothing.

"Hey, would you look at that," Mercury's voice taunted Ruby as she pushed herself up to her feet. She could follow him with her eyes as he walked around her, but only as little more than a silhouette. "Beacon's actually teaching you brats something useful."

"Mercury," Ruby hissed as she held her nose. Her eyes flicked towards her Scroll, then to Crescent Rose. She threw her aura into her Semblance and lunged for her only chance at catching her team, only for Mercury to catch her with a vicious kick to her stomach. While her aura kept her from being wounded, it certainly didn't stop the pain of the strike, nor of being flung into the wall behind her. Red flickered around her, aura standing but still waning as Mercury approached. Dazed from the blow, Ruby looked up just as Mercury casually crushed her Scroll on the way to her, fully extinguishing the light in the room and, even with her boosted sight, leaving her blind.

"All it took was a couple goons as bait and you came running." Mercury let out a snide chuckle as Ruby pushed herself up the wall to her feet. His humor faded. "What a waste."

She felt metal crash into her jaw, the world tilting, then, nothing.

* * *

 **A/N: And we're back.**

 **Remember those real life issues that kept me from updating weekly? They came back in full force and wiped me out. Good news is that I've begun fixing everything and, while I was off the updating wagon, even made a nice buffer space of written chapters for myself for the coming weeks. I'll be sticking to biweekly(every Friday), but, I think if the buffer starts getting too big, I'll release chapters more often. So, I guess, "at least" one every two weeks.**

 **But, author, you might say, it's not Friday on the day this was posted(Monday)! This is true: to make up for my sudden vanishing, I'm putting out two chapters. One today, one on Friday. Sorry for the long wait, everyone.**

 **After a few chapters or the end of V2, the Author's Note will be wiped.**

 **Comment and criticism always welcome.  
**


	46. V2: Satisfaction Brought It Back

**Satisfaction Brought It Back  
**

* * *

 _[Powering on. . .]_

Penny didn't remember how she got like this. One moment, Grandpa Merlot and Torchwick were standing at the sole terminal in her cell and, the next, she was lying down and powering back on. Had they found a way to force her into sleep mode? Her eyes slid open and she attempted to sit up, only for that horrid feeling of being trapped in her own body to take over. She could barely force her eyes to move at all, but, it was enough to catch a glimpse of her arms. A pair of black, bulky cuffs locked them together at her wrists.

 _[Aura not detected. Warning: secondary power system below 10%.]_

She must've been like this for a while if her secondaries were this low, already. Penny would have had more time to assess her situation if she hadn't become all too aware of someone lingering over her. With her vision dark, blurred and constantly attempting to refocus from lack of power, she could barely recognize him, but, the messy red hair and acrid smell of smoke gave it away.

Torchwick didn't say a word for a while, only smoking from his cigar, looming over her. Had they managed to retrieve the information they'd wanted from her? Had RWAY finally shown up? Atlas? Was he gong to move her or, was this just how it was going to end? After all, there was no way they could keep her here forever. Knowing fully how futile of an effort it would be, Penny reached her aura out with all her might for her weaponry. It took all of her effort, but she could just faintly feel the tendrils of her soul begin grasping her blades.

"Puppet," he murmured, and her concentration shattered. She felt her head turn towards Torchwick. The light of his cigar grew brighter. "You're nothing but a puppet on strings." He let out a low chuckle at her expense, and Penny realized she must've managed a glare.

"Don't you worry, kid. You're no different from the rest of us." He paused. "Well, besides the obvious. Dragged along on some stupid war you don't know the half of, following blindly because of what'll happen if you don't, another cog in the great machine." Torchwick took a long drag and stepped out of her view. "Pathetic. And the worst part is, you could do something about it."

Penny twitched, and her head swiveled to track Torchwick without her attempting to move it herself. The next thing she knew, she was sitting up, captive in her own body as it moved entirely on its own. At least, she thought it was...

"Well, look at you go!" Her darkening sight left the pristine, white walls of her cell as a dingy gray. Torchwick himself was little more than blurs of color and the pulsing, orange light of his cigar. "What would you even do if you could get free, anyway? Get yourself killed trying to apprehend us? I'm sure if you killed or captured enough high-ranking criminals, you'd be just fine with it, wouldn't ya, tin can?"

Her mind lethargically searched through her files, calculating, predicting. Wasn't Grandpa Merlot a priority one target for destroying—

 _[Error: Administrators cannot be priority targets. Deleting.]_

Torchwick might've been the only priority target she knew of in the facility, but, she was just a Huntress-in-training. She'd be worth the capture of Vale's most wanted. What was wrong with that?

"Merlot did some digging around in your objectives, y'know. Found something about wanting to 'be a real girl'. Want to know the truth, kid? As long as you can't even think of doing something for yourself, you'll _never_ be real. Ah, but, out of the goodness of my heart, I, Roman Torchwick, shall help you on your way!" he declared as he plopped down behind the terminal. The criminal didn't sound genuine. Already, Penny could feel him bumbling around through her code like someone let a spider loose inside her skull—

* * *

 _[Restarting. . .]_

 _[Aura not detected. Warning: secondary power system at 6%.]_

Penny twitched. Were it not for her system informing her of her former unconsciousness, she never would have even known that she'd blacked out. Nothing seemed to have changed. Torchwick was still modifying her: the first thing she'd even felt was him leaving a file.

"Get out," she managed to mumble. To her surprise, the rooting actually stopped.

Torchwick chuckled. "Oh, please. If you could remember any of this once we're done here, you'd thank me later." Inside, Penny could feel her protocols being accessed. Priority lists. Administrative privileges. Maide—

* * *

Torchwick dusted his hands off and forced himself from his chair. A job well done, and a job that Cinder and Merlot didn't need to know one bit about. After clearing out the evidence of his edits, he cast one last look over at the deactivated girl on the counter. He flicked the remnants of his cigar into a trash bin and wondered whether or not the only reason he cared at all about that machine was because he was in the exact same position. He snorted. Better than getting soft.

His thoughts were interrupted by the door opening behind him. "It's all yours, Merlot." He waved him in without sparing a glance in his direction. It wasn't like anyone else besides Merlot and himself were allowed in here besides Cinder, and she was too busy off playing schoolgirl to do any work, herself.

"Smoking in here yet again? I have a right mind to lock you out of the labs! Unbelievable..." Merlot stormed past him grumbling to himself as he sat down and immediately went to work, prosthetic arm glowing a faint green.

"Not like we'll be using this one for longer than, what, a week, tops?" Torchwick grabbed his cane and made his way out into the halls of the base, grunting occasionally from a particularly painful step. This new leg was getting on his nerves. He could barely walk, let alone have the old bounce in his step! Not to mention his balance, something, Torchwick thought, was absolutely worse as an open parasol threw him onto his rear with a light shove. The air of the hallway ahead cracked and collapsed, leaving Neo standing in front of him with a hand on her hip and her parasol resting on her shoulder. She watched with a blank expression as Roman groaned and pushed himself back to his feet.

"Okay, are you going to _explain_?" he grumbled, "Or, are you just going to keep standing there?" Neo remained still, and looked him over. "You have got to be—look, if you're trying to wring some more 'danger pay' out of me, I swear..." Torchwick tried to march by, but a flick of Neo's wrist left her lace parasol blocking his path. He glared down over it, and Neo matched his stare. Finally, it was Neo who cracked and her blank expression fell away to a furrowed brow and frown. Roman sighed and rubbed his temples. She was worried about him.

"I'm fine, kid, trust me."

"... ?" Neo's brow rose and she smirked up at him.

"Yeah, really, I'm sure." Torchwick snorted. Neo snapped her parasol shut and made a show up twirling it in her hand as she took a slow, leisurely walk around Torchwick and looked him over. She tapped it on his more sullen cheeks, and Roman scoffed. She brought the tip through his rugged, duller hair, and Roman looked away, sneering. She flipped his hair up to stare up into the eye he hadn't even bothered putting his usual mascara on and, finally, Roman groaned and reached into his pockets.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, what's your point! We've been busy, what of it?" He started pulling a cigar out when Neo snatched it from his hand in the blink of an eye. "Are you seriously so worried about me you're going to bust out the 'smoking's bad for you' card?"

Now it was Neo's turn to scoff, albeit silently, as she placed the cigar between her lips and producing Roman's own cigar case from her pocket, leaving the crime lord to pat himself down before turning a glare Neo's way. Her only response was to flip the lid open, revealing a case empty besides only one, lonely cigar. A case meant to hold twenty-five. That he'd gone through in two days. _"... ?"_

"Fine! You win, I'm a little stressed out—"

"..."

"Okay, that's taking it too far!" Roman cleared his throat while Neo silently giggled at his expense. "Look, kid, you're right. This whole thing's got me on edge, but, it's not like we can do anything about it."

Neo looked behind her and plucked the cigar from her mouth.

"No, Neo, we aren't gonna be able to dash our way out of this one." Her head snapped back around to face him, eyes wide in a mix of offense that he'd ever say that about them and worry about what would actually make him think it at all. "We're in something way over our heads." Roman mulled it over. "Well, I am."

His loyal henchwoman glared at him. " _I_ am," Roman repeated more sternly. Neo's eyes widened. "This isn't something for you, kid." Neo's wide-eyed stare remained full of shock for a moment longer before, in the literal blink of an eye, her usual irises of pink and brown twisting into a ice-white glare full of nothing short of murderous intent aimed at the door behind him. She pressed the tip of her parasol to the ground and brought her other hand to it. If that glare was directed at hi, Roman thought, he'd probably have died on the spot. Not that he'd ever let Neo know that.

Torchwck smirked. "Now, look here, cupcake, unless you plan on making Cindy keel over from cuteness, I don't see too many ways you're going to kill her or stop her from coming after us if you go through that door." He kept that smirk on his face even as Neo stomped her foot down and jabbed at him with the end of her umbrella, though, slowly but surely, it began to slip.

"Yeah. Yeah, I know it's serious." He stretched himself out and yawned. "It's pretty damn bad, actually. Listen to me, Neo." By the time he'd turned his sight back down to her, his expression had become stoic. "If something ever happens to me, you need to get out of this, alright? Pack it up, get a new name or something and _scram._ I can't tell you what's going on—no, not even if you pout at me like that—but it's nothing I want you in."

"..." Neo narrowed her eyes.

"Yeesh, kid, 'I sound like your dad'? That one kinda hurt!" She turned away from him and turned her nose up with a huff.

"Hope I'm not interrupting some touching moment," Mercury called from around the bend of the hall, "but I brought you two a little present!" He grunted and finally came into view as muffled shouting grew louder. Dragged behind him bound with rope and with tape over her mouth was Ruby Rose.

As if his conversation with Neo never happened, Torchwick erupted into cruel laughter. "Mercury, if you were smarter, you'd be like the son I never had!"

* * *

The dying flames of RWAY's campsite had turned to little more embers. The light was so minuscule that the three remaining members were not even silhouettes but simply hints of forms laying in the darkness. One of the forms shifted in their sleeping bags.

"Ruby has been out there for a while..." Yang murmured. Silence reigned the small space, not even broken up by the howl of Beowolves or crumbling of buildings.

A second form shifted. "She's probably just patrolling," Weiss offered. "Really, do you think she'd want to just sit around in the same spot for four hours?" She tried to joke, but her words were empty.

A shadow curled inwards on itself. "... She knows, doesn't she?"

Another turned itself. "Of course she does!" Weiss spoke in a hushed whisper. "You've been making it so obvious since this morning I'm surprised she didn't bring it to our attention, herself!"

"Like you've been blameless! I'm not the one who's been dong a one-eighty on her 'spoiled grump' shtick whenever Ruby's within earshot!"

"Well, I'm not the one who let her murder someone or made it obvious we knew, so as far as I'm concerned, I _am_ blameless, here!" The two suddenly became acutely aware of the fact that there was a third shadow in their midst, one that hadn't so much as twitched during their whispered argument, even though they knew, of all of them, he'd be the first one to have heard them. Yet, there was no rebuttal, no snorting or glowing colors.

"Is... is he actually _asleep_ in a situation like this!?"

"No." Adam made no attempt to whisper or mask his voice. "And be silent. Something's wrong." Though Adam could feel a pair of glares boring into the back of his head, the camp maintained a short period of quiet. Neither the crumbling of buildings or howl of Beowolves broke it. The only thing they could hear was the beating of their own hearts.

"Are you going somewhere with this?" asked Weiss.

The third shadow rose. "I don't hear anything. I don't hear Ruby at all." There was a shuffling of a sleeping bag and scuff of boots on stone, and the third shadow stood tall.

"Yeah, and?" Yang said. "If she's patrolling, obviously she'd be too far out for you to hear."

"I've been able to enhance my ears further with my aura. I've been keeping an 'eye' on her as long as she's been patrolling the area by listening to her footsteps... she hasn't just not been at the camp for a while, she's been nowhere near it for some time."

"How long?" Weiss asked, and Adam's lack of answer was plenty of information. A glyph marked with the Schnee crest lit the room in ghostly blue. "Well?" She found Adam with his eyes locked on his Scroll. Before she could ask another question, Adam tossed it to her. Yang crawled out of her bag to peer over Weiss' shoulder. The window was switched over to a static view of the team's conditions.

Not only was Ruby's portrait darkened, meaning she was disconnected from even the local connections of their Scrolls, but her aura was in the orange. It was pixels away from falling into the red, where it would have no doubt alerted them to her critical condition. It was a sign of a calculated attack. Adam was already gathering ammunition and supplies by the time they'd grasped that.

Even as she rushed to gather her Dust under the light of her glyph and, furious enough to replace its light with a fiery orange, Yang all but slammed her gauntlets on and loaded them, Weiss found one question standing out to her. "Where, exactly are we going?"

"The last reported position of Ruby's Scroll. After that? Penny's location." Adam replied as he gave Wilt a test swing and, eyes momentarily flashing with his aura, walked towards one of the empty windows.

"That's clearly a trap, now!" Weiss complained.

"Well what choice do we have, Weiss!" Yang growled. "They kidnapped my sister! Besides, if they attacked her, that means they have to be close, right? That means Penny really is probably over there!"

"I'm ready," Adam informed them, already jumping out into the streets. Yang sprung out without a second thought and, with Yang's light fading by the second and her mind full of the horrid things the White Fang could do in even this short period of time, Weiss hopped through the window after them.

* * *

Yang was the one who found Crescent Rose. As Adam and Weiss watched her scoop up the Crescent Rose and the shattered Scoll with enough hatred in her eyes to leave them glowing even compared to her flaming hair, briefly, they wondered if the resulting explosion would be enough to alert whatever White Fang scouts would inevitably be around. To their surprise, however, she may have trembled with rage, her hair may have lit the halls like a campfire and her breath came out as steam, but Yang managed to restrain her temper.

"If they touch a hair on her head, I _swear_ I'll kill them." She shoved Crescent Rose into Adam's arms hard enough to force him a step back—another reminder of just whose organization had done this. Weiss looked to Adam with wide eyes, and, when he made no effort to stop or reprimand Yang, she jogged off after the fading light and tried to get her attention. Adam remained there, staring at Ruby's weapon even as the light from Yang's wrath faded away and left only his aura-enhanced faunus eyes giving him sight in the darkness.

He knew that he should have said something to her, should have tried to help Weiss calm Yang down, should have gotten Yang to realize the gravity of her words, but, she knew just what she was saying. Just as Adam knew that, were Blake in a the same situation—and her current situation was already far too similar to this—he'd have killed all the same. He already had. It was his first kill.

Adam only hoped that it wouldn't be Yang's first as well.

* * *

The silence was almost thick enough to stifle one's breath. It was the first and only thing they'd noticed about Mountain Glenn, this night: no Grimm, no patrols, nothing but the occasional scuff of their footsteps or crack of something breaking beneath their feet. However, that did not mean Mountain Glenn was empty: for the first time since their arrival, they'd found signs of other people. Obvious signs of conflict in the building Ruby was kidnapped in. Footprints of multiple people in the dusty streets. Scorched remnants of campfires. As Yang took the lead, now, and the remaining members of Team RWAY rushed through the darkness as fast as they could with their limited sight and only Weiss' glyph led the way, they knew that they were getting close.

Tracking Penny's Scroll brought them to the city hall of Mountain Glenn. Here, at the center of the city, one of its last stands took place: a willful sacrifice of the remaining Huntsmen and Huntresses in a desperate attempt to hold off the waves of Grimm long enough for a civilian evacuation. Ravaged defensive placements stood in the center of absolute ruination. As the trio moved through the streets, a point came where nothing resembling a building remained on either side, and entire streets were blocked by walls of rubble.

The city hall was the only building to remain standing at all. Its entire front, little more than a broken silhouette, was reduced to gnarled steel bars, but, the rest of its walls still stood strong. Across a vast, open courtyard, the trio watched it carefully from a pile of rubble and Adam waved for Weiss to destroy her glyph. "We need as much aura as possible," he said. "Lessen your sight, let me lead the way." Adam let the aura drain from his own eyes and raised Crescent Rose up.

Clad in the greens and blacks of night vision, the city hall was even more of a pitiful sight: its front, once a tower standing multiple stories, was nothing more than a twisted skeleton. The walls, once appearing strong, were now clearly hollow and scorched. The black fog that clung to the world in Mountain Glenn, however, kept him from seeing much more.

"No movement." Adam sighed. "Let's go." The three bolted across the courtyard as one, expecting gunfire and grenades to rain down at any time. Yet, though they felt watched throughout their dash, not a single bullet struck the ground near them. No flashes of light, not even a murmur of surprise. They'd reached the long-destroyed front door unmolested. Adam tapped his fingers on Crescent Rose and scanned the inside through its scope. Here, at last, there was plenty of signs of the White Fang: discarded ration packages, furniture moved into not defensive positions but living ones, dust laying uneven.

"... Where are they?" Weiss murmured, rapier drawn and ready.

"They must've taken her and run when they knew we were coming..." Yang hissed under her breath. Adam gave both of them a light tap to their shoulders. Something wasn't right. He took a few steps into the building and lowered Crescent Rose before crouching down and placing a hand on the ground. Just as he had while searching for Ruby, he gathered as much of his aura into himself as he could, extending his senses far and wide, a technique his mentor had once taught him.

"This place is empty," Adam breathed out. There was no one. No one in the entire building. No one near the building. Not even the faintest signs of their auras remained.

"What?" Yang exclaimed through gritted teeth and only a cordial attempt at being quiet.

"There's no one here," Adam said and stood up. "No one's _been_ here in some time... this is just a worthless outpost."

"That... that doesn't make any sense!" Weiss patted herself down for her Scroll and, soon, the room was lit a faint blue by the strangled light of her device. "They couldn't have just thrown Penny's Scroll, I saw it moving _tonight_!" She all but sprinted off into the building, the lack of people leaving her caring nothing at all about a little noise. Yang rushed after her, in fear that something, still, could be waiting for them to make a mistake. Adam, on the other hand, followed behind at a languid pace, his eyes turned to Crescent Rose and his thoughts on just where they could have hidden her.

By the time Adam had caught up to the two girls, they were staring into what looked like any other room: barren, dusty and without a single sign of Penny or her Scroll. Weiss waved her Scroll through the inner room, but the only thing the extra light did was underline the emptiness. Yang seethed behind her, eyes burning-red; if they were far from Penny, they were far from her sister, too. Weiss was left gazing at her Scroll, as if doing so for long enough would suddenly have all the world's secrets jumping out at her from its florescent screen.

They were right on top of Penny's position, but nothing was there.

"It... it's still moving..." Weiss murmured. "They can't be below us, right? You said no one was near here..."

"That doesn't matter. This building is defensible, but, I doubt they could keep enough people to guard Penny _and_ Ruby without leaving more signs of their presence than week-old wrappers. The White Fang is good, but even the home branch in Mistral couldn't stay hidden right under everyone's noses for this long."

"Then where the Hell _are_ they, Adam!" Yang snapped. "They were your people, weren't they? How can you be so crap at your job that you wouldn't be able to find your own army!"

"My people under that witch _Cinder's_ influence. There are leagues of differences between the White Fang and whatever _she_ has created."

Yang snorted. "Oh, yeah, so many differences between two insane terrorist groups."

As Weiss could only look between them, Adam tried to remind himself that Yang, no doubt, wasn't in a great state of mind. None of them were. He tried to bite his tongue. "Getting angry at me isn't going to get us any closer to them," he hissed. "The only thing you're going to do is drag Grimm here."

"Don't lecture me, it's _your_ fault we're in this mess, Adam!" She shouted back loud enough to echo through the halls and, no doubt, beyond. "So just... just shut up and tell me where they are! Tell me where my sister is!"

"Actually, students," Doctor Oobleck interjected as he stepped out from around a corner, "Miss Schnee was closer to the truth than you may think!"

* * *

The cries of her brethren haunted Blake, no matter how far or how fast she ran through the darkness of the night. The cherry-red leaves of the Forever Fall whipped past her as she tried her hardest to ignore the cages hanging from them. To ignore the faunus within, crying and reaching out towards her with mindless eyes and the bleating of creatures without speech. Some of them, she was sure she could recognize, could place names to faces, histories and relationships to names, but it only drove Blake to sprint faster and let the shame sink deeper.

After all, if they couldn't stop whatever was happening to them, what chance did she have? As she darted across the red grass, steps feeling feathery light without the feeling of fatigue so much as touching her, Blake realized she didn't know exactly _how_ this happened. She only knew one thing: this was man's doing. Human work. The thought brought a chill through her, just as the thought of what would happen if she couldn't escape did.

Blake thought she could hear her name being called and she squeezed her eyes shut. If she let guilt and imagined thoughts drag her down, she'd never be able to leave—

"Blake!" She froze. It was no figment of her imagination. "Blake, please!" Blake forced herself to turn to face that familiar voice. Ilia. She was caged, just like the others, but while they had their minds and souls stripped from them, Ilia had remained herself. Clad in her White Fang uniform and covered in scratches, it looked like she'd put up a fight when she was captured. As if watching her actions from over her own shoulder, Blake couldn't stop her from taking steps back.

"Don't leave me here, Blake. We can both escape! Please!" Ilia tore the mask of the White Fang from her face, staring down at her with pleading eyes. Blake stopped and looked at her hands. She held Gambol Shroud, yet couldn't recall when she had drawn it. There was a chain that held the cages to the branches. If she could strike that...

The blade of Gambol Shroud soared above the cage, its aim true. It ground against the chains and sparks flew, but, when Gambol Shroud returned to her hand, the cage still hung. She tried again. And again. Even the branches above were unyielding, more like steel than wood. Blake didn't know how many times she tried, nor did she know when the tears started to flow, but, she did know when, slowly and with shaky hands, she let Gambol Shroud fall. Ilia's protests and pleads for her to keep trying melted together and grew muffled as she started to backpedal once more. She couldn't. She had to run. She had to save herself, because she couldn't save anyone else. Just like her team in Haven.

She bumped into someone. "Maybe it's because you're too busy trying to do it all by yourself?" Cinder's smooth tones came from behind her. Blake turned to see her smiling down to her with all the confidence in the world in her eyes. She placed a reassuring hand on Blake's shoulder, and motioned towards the chain the cage hung from. Blake saw her eye not just glow, but burn with a flame of their own as fires coiled around the chain, rapidly leaving it white-hot and weakened. Yet, she did not break it. Why?

"Relying so much on another is folly... besides, I'm not the one who could truly free the faunus." Cinder stepped to her side and squeezed her shoulder. " _You_ are." Gambol Shroud was back in Blake's hands, feeling lighter than ever. She wiped the tears from her eyes, took a step back, then sent the blade careening towards the white-hot chain.

It did not break.

Blake tried to ignore the sharp breath of surprise from the woman beside her, and swung again.

It did not break.

She squeezed her eyes shut to hold back her frustrated tears and swung for the branches.

They did not break.

"What? That can't be right..." She heard Cinder murmur beside her in shock, yet, her voice didn't sound right. It wasn't hers. Blake, however, made nothing of it— _couldn't_ make anything of it—for her focus only on her own weakness as each strike, weaker than the last, clattered noisily against the chains that did not even scratch. Once more, she knew not how long she lashed out at the only thing keeping her friend from a fate worse than death.

 _"She's gone, child."_ Blake did hear that, however. A voice that held no source, yet seeped through her very being. She opened her eyes to find herself kneeling on the ground and, above, Ilia stared blankly on in her emerald cage, breathing and alive, but with eyes empty and lacking thought of any kind. She'd failed. Cinder's gaze was locked on the tree as well, however, but, for different reasons: the branches, once empty beyond the cherry-red leaves, were now adorned with countless small Nevermores with eyes boring into Blake.

One small, yet with with feathers of purest white stood atop the cage.

 _"And so many others will suffer the same fate. But you can still fix this,"_ the voice whispered to her.

"I can't!" Blake shouted. "I... I-I'm too weak." She shook her head.

 _"Ah, this is true, young one. But, in you, there is great potential. I can grant you it."_ The world seemed deathly still, now. Blake realized that not only had the moans stopped, but so had the wind and, as she looked at leaves frozen in their breeze, so had time. The white Nevermore suddenly took to the skies and soared overhead. When Blake followed its path, she saw not just Cinder, but three others. Women she couldn't focus upon, whose features melted and changed, whose only uniting features were the glow in her eyes.

 _"There can be no victory in strength, but, that does not make it a useless tool._ " And the world shifted. Cherry grass and cloudy night skies became pristine, marble ground in a world stained bloody red. Blake became acutely aware of her own heartbeat as she looked around. She was in a great hall, now, fit for a Schnee, lined with windows revealing only a barren wasteland beyond. Jagged outcrops of stone stretched towards the sky like claws. Pools of black ichor stretched out as far as the eye could see.

Blake felt a scratching at the back of her mind—the knowledge that none of this was real trying its hardest to break through her fear and worry. Her bow twitched, and her instincts told her that she needed to be anywhere _but_ here.

 _"You could save them."_ And all of it was brushed aside by the voice. _"Every faunus. Every friend. Is that what you desire?"_ Blake numbly nodded, and she as drawn to walk. She could see a door in the distance, tall and grand. Her instinct tried to claw at her again: this wasn't real. This couldn't be real.

 _"This is more real than you could imagine."_ Nothing would be offered without a trade. A demand. As a faunus, she knew this well.

The voice chuckled. _"There is no catch, child. Only a request: save them."_ The colors drained from the world with each step she took towards the door. Blake became aware of a presence beside her, someone else drawn to this door, but cared not enough to see what it was. She also became aware of the watchful eyes: countless Nevermores turning the arches above her black, known only by their endless, red eyes.

The world was nothing but grays and blacks by the time she stood before the door, and Blake could feel it: a prickling cold across her yet, with it, came a feeling of unimaginable power. Like, for that moment, she could do anything. She could break the chain that kept Ilia from her. She could break the ones holding all of faunus. She could keep her team safe. She could fix _everything._

She wouldn't need to run anymore.

 _"Take it."_ Blake reached out. The presence beside her shied away. The door, standing far greater than they, swung open without a word. Thousands of wings fluttered. Her eyes burned yet felt cold as ice. Someone stood on the other side. Eyes glowing like coal. Porcelain skin. Black veins. Comfort. Power. Fear. Run.

 **Run.**

* * *

"Blake!" A shout and crash sent Blake rocketing up from her bed, eyes wide, ears flat against her head beneath her bow, and with every breath coming to her heavy and harsh, like she'd jogged across all of Vale. Her gaze leaped across the room, searching for anything out of the ordinary. The room was frigid, yet sweat still beaded on her face. Her eyes felt as if she'd pressed ice to them. Memories of her dream flooded to her mind yet faded and became muddled just as quickly.

Blake remembered she wasn't alone, tonight. Cinder had errands to run. Mercury was off with family. There was only her and...

Emerald was curled up beside Blake's bed, trembling, gasping for air just as she, and staring down at her hands with open confusion and fear in her eyes. She tensed, as if realizing that Blake could see her.

Ruby-red met gold.

Emerald's lips parted, and words tried to form, yet became nothing but ash by the time they reached her tongue. The two stared at each other in cold silence, questions rising in their minds, and dying just as quickly.

"Y-you had a dream!" Emerald blurted out. "I... I mean, you were _having_ a dream. A nightmare. I-I went to wake you up, but..." She was lying about something, and poorly, at that. As their breaths finally grew more steady, Blake shifted to face her. Emerald flinched.

"Did you see Her?" Blake whispered. Her teammate's eyes widened in surprise, fear, and what Blake briefly thought was relief. Finally, Emerald nodded, and dragged herself to her feet.

"I, uh... I'm gonna go call Cinder. M-maybe she'll come back a little sooner." Without waiting for a response, Emerald went through the door with the same, slow, plodding steps Blake could recall herself taking in her dream. Confused and lost, Blake looked around the now empty room and her eyes soon fell to their open window.

A feather white as snow sat on the windowsill, fluttering in the wind before fading to mist.


	47. V2: Phase 3

**Phase 3  
**

* * *

"... Underground?" Weiss was the first to question Oobleck's explanation. Yang was pacing the room, brushing a hand through her hair in a vain attempt to keep her cool knowing that they'd been barking up the complete wrong tree. Adam, on the other hand, was left leaning against one of the walls, deep in thought.

"That's right, students! They've been beneath our nose the entire time! Mountain Glenn was known for its deep caves so of course they would have taken refuge in one of its many outposts beneath the ground! Why, in fact, they served as the very last refuge of man here in the city: a final—albeit futile—chance to hold out and potentially escape the waves of Grimm," Oobleck lectured with energy completely unaffected by the atmosphere of tension and fear he'd walked into.

"In fact," the doctor added, "I should be thanking you all for assisting me on coming to that realization with your actions! You see, by ever-so-kindly informing me of your supposed believed location of our White Fang ne'er-do-wells was actually, in fact, based on tracking young Poledina's Scroll, it left it clear that the most likely possibility was that the White Fang had hidden beneath the very earth!" Trying to follow Oobleck's speed left Weiss fumbling for words in a delayed reaction to him knowing about their plan. Team 'WAY' all had their eyes on Oobleck, now.

With no retort from his students, Oobleck continued on, tone far more serious: "If you did not notice, students, that was your opportunity to tell me exactly _why_ you would hide the potential exact location of the White Fang base away from your superior."

The three students glanced around in the darkness, still without words. They were caught in a conundrum. They could never explain the true reason: to tell Oobleck—and, through him, Ozpin—of Cinder and the White Fang directly would inevitably lead to Cinder making due on her threats on Blake. Indeed, her threats to Blake were only to stop that exact thing from occurring. They could be coy about it. They could be sly and lead them to her under a cover of plausible deniability, but, even now, they walked a thin line. A line they wouldn't even know whether or not they crossed until they returned.

Though Weiss could not see Oobleck, she could feel his gaze on him. "I-I'd just believed, Doctor, that if we'd told you..." Her words died on her lips.

"Oh, please," Yang piped up, "don't bullshit us and say you would've even thought about bringing us along if you already knew!"

"We wanted to be certain that Penny remained safe," Adam added. "There's no doubt you would've called up Ozpin and sent everything you had down there. Or, worse, _General Ironwood_ would have found out about it. A teenage girl is a small price to pay for the entire White Fang: Atlas wouldn't have cared what happened to her."

With her teammates building up their lie, Weiss was able to steel herself. "We... we can't abandon our friends, Doctor. As a Huntress-in-training, it would against the very code and community we swear to protect to so easily put one of our own at risk."

Silence fell.

"Students," Oobleck said, "I am highly disappointed in all of you. Like children, you have allowed prejudices to obscure and corrupt the most precious thing of all in such circumstances: knowledge." The room lit up as Oobleck drew his own Scroll. "This was a joint operation with Atlas from the beginning, and they have been putting considerable resources into not just stopping the White Fang here but extracting Miss Poledina." He shook his head. "This will reflect very poorly on your grade. Gather your things: your mission here is over."

Disregarding the growing frustration and the glares turned his direction, Oobleck looked around the room. "And just where is Miss Rose?"

* * *

"I can't believe it, tin man, you're right!" Ruby's whine echoed as she was kicked into a pristine, white cell. "Kicking people _does_ get you used to the new leg!" Torchwick cackled and stretched out his leg as Ruby shuffled and forced her way up onto her knees. Her legs had been bound, but, normally, that wouldn't be a problem at all: a little aura-boosted strength and maybe some of her Semblance and she could slither right out of it.

Too bad she felt like her aura was bring strangled, and Ruby had a feeling it was from the heavy pressure on her wrists cuffed together behind her back. Even if it was hopeless, even if all she could do was wait, she couldn't let _them_ know that and, so, Ruby glared up at Torchwick and Mercury as they lingered in front of her.

"Points to the kid: she's got a mean glare. Well, for a puppy, anyway," Mercury jeered and strolled closer. "Or are you just pouting? It's kinda hard to tell."

Ruby spat on his shoe.

Mercury stared down at her, smirk unchanging. He nodded approvingly, stood tall, and kicked Ruby in the stomach.

* * *

Ruby's capture complicated matters. Severely. On one hand, Ruby was an extremely important student to Ozpin and, even if he didn't tell them everything about his reason to invite her to Beacon, it was clear as day that as little harm was to come to her as possible. Worse yet, even now, Oobleck was not sure if her innocence could survive being imprisoned by villains like the White Fang. On the other, he was not lying at all when he said their mission was over: this was, as much as he hated to admit it, Atlas' job now. They were only the scouts. A mission of this magnitude was surely beyond freshman, even if it meant leaving Ruby in the hands of the faunus.

Doctor Oobleck made his choice: "... I'm afraid that doesn't change a thing."

The room erupted into oranges and fiery yellows. "What?!" Yang roared. "Ruby's been kidnapped, and that's your answer! 'That doesn't change a thing'? We're just gonna sit here and do nothing?"

Adam snorted. "So much for Huntsmen never leaving each other behind. Whatever happened to that 'honor' they're supposed to have, anyway?"

"What _happened_..." Oobleck sighed. "Was that Atlas requested total control of the operation and, _u_ _nfortunately_ , they didn't have any contingencies for the entire scout team deciding to go rogue and getting one of themselves captured." Lit by the inferno that was Yang with Weiss' icy glare pinning him down and Adam's hand constantly clenching around the hilt of his weapon, Oobleck briefly wondered if they were foolish enough to actually resort to violence over this. Team RWAY had a rather infamous reputation with the faculty for their... _aggressive_ nature, even among themselves. Though, this would be a surprising act even for them...

The doctor made nothing of it. His choice was made and he was sticking to it. "The mission is _over_ , students." He rose his Scroll to his ear and turned away from them. "And as much as I am sure the three of you would love to wait until I am conveniently busy calling Ozpin and make a wild dash for the underground base of the White Fang using the subway tunnels seventy yards east of here before I could notice and, thus, stop you at all, you must learn to listen to your superior officer!"

The three students didn't say a word as he walked out of the room.

And, as Oobleck heard the scuffs of his students' shoes as they bolted from the building, he smiled. He'd indeed made his choice.

Now, to pray that it was not a mistake.

"Ah, headmaster! I have wonderful news: our mission has succeeded in record time!"

* * *

The room spun as Ruby forced herself to sit up. This time, the door slamming shut and locking made it clear that Mercury and Torchwick had enough fun laughing at her misery and decided to leave. Probably to go kick puppy faunus or something...

Ruby groaned and leaned up against a bed in the center of the room. This sucked. This sucked a _lot._ No aura, no friends, not even her baby, Crescent Rose! All she could do here is keep trying to wriggle out of her ropes and hope she could think of a way out before the rest of her team showed up. After all, she Ruby was sure that she was going to make it out of this just fine, but how much cooler would she be if she met RWAY halfway after breaking herself out! Even Weiss would have to admit she was cool. But, until then...

She sighed and looked over at Penny sitting on the bed she leaned on. "Guess it's just you and me, Penny..."

... Wait.

"Penny?!" Ruby snapped out of her daze in an instant and shuffled closer. Indeed, Penny was sitting right there in her normal outfit, her head down and eyes looking way more dull than usual, but she looked alright. She had the same cuffs she did, just with her hands in her lap rather than behind her.

"Penny, are you okay? Did they hurt you?" Ruby wriggled and bounced up in front of Penny to try and get her attention, but, she didn't make any effort to move. She didn't even so much as blink. Her stare empty and without life. If her chest wasn't still rising and falling, she would've looked dead. Ruby's heart raced as she looked Penny over: it didn't look like they'd hurt her at all, but, why would she be like this? Her eyes fell onto the heavy manacles on Penny's wrists. The same ones she wore.

The ones that were probably squeezing her aura like this... oh no! Who knew what kind of effect they would have on someone like Penny!

Ruby gasped. "Don't you worry, Penny! I'll get us out of here!"

Maybe it was just a trick of the light, but, Ruby swore she saw Penny smile.

* * *

There was no time to move carefully or with stealth. By now, the leaderless Team RWAY didn't just cease to care about whether or not the White Fang noticed them approaching, they _wanted_ the White Fang to know. Weiss kept the way ahead lit with a shining glyph, and it was well-needed: they raced through tunnels filled with debris, stairwells that were little more than jagged steel by now, lower floors that were half-collapsed and full of holes. They, just like the streets above, were barren of Grimm yet, even at their speeds, they could catch glimpses of the wear and tear of recent activity.

The White Fang had been here. Often. Recently. Glances at her Scroll told Weiss that moving down through the mazes of subway tunnels and stations were taking them further away from Penny, but, now that they at least knew the _plane_ they were supposed to be on, that didn't matter to her one bit.

Yang rushed past Weiss to ram through the final door that would take them to their destination. The difference was like night and day, and the simplest change was light pouring in at all. It was still strangled and desaturated, but, at long last, natural light allowed them to see both the landscape and the source of the light at all: massive, pale cracks in the sky itself, like veins reaching across and through the heavens. Across them, stars of a myriad of colors twinkled away. But, it was no sky at all: it was the top of the gigantic cave the second level of Mountain Glenn laid within.

"Is that... _Dust?_ " Yang mumbled as they stepped out into the stale, stagnant air. They now stood atop the roof of a building at least eight stories tall against the earthen walls with a perfect view of the city: a skeleton, just like its brother above. Tall towers of steel girders stood without floors or even walls, scattered among streets that looked like they'd barely ever been walked, and buildings paradoxically caught between collapse yet parts of them looking all but pristine. A city under construction and never finished.

"There's so much!" The bruiser said, "No one ever came back for it?"

Adam glanced over to Weiss. "Well, you're the heiress. This sounds like your field."

Weiss scoffed. "Perhaps the Schnee Dust Company wanted to let the dead rest peacefully instead of digging up their graves for money?" Adam cocked an eyebrow. "... Fine, the _real_ reason is because the remnants of previous owner, Merlot Industries, has been very adamant on keeping mining rights in the former areas of Mountain Glenn, even if they've never used them. My father was... _very_ opinionated on their practices."

"How horrible, the former owners won't let someone _else_ dig up the graves of millions," Adam grumbled.

"It's more complicated than that, you dolt! Mountain Glenn has one of the largest Dust deposits in the world; it rivals even Atlas!"

"Alright, alright, I get it!" Yang stepped between them both, eyes a reddening magenta already. "We still have _someone_ we need to be saving." The two nodded, and the team began walking towards the edge.

"Wait!" Weiss called out. "Before we go, I suppose now is the best time to give you this, Adam." She withdrew a pair of rifle magazines fitted for Blush from her belt with colored notches all the way down its sides, marking potentially devastating Dust payloads in each cartridge. The Schnee insignia was emblazoned in white on one side and his wilted rose emblem on the other.

"It took a lot of work, too, so you better at least say thanks." She wasn't lying, Adam thought: with how little his weapon ever left his side, most of her observations would have had to have been from eye and what measurements she could take in the scarce moments it was away from him, yet, just on sight alone he could tell it'd fit perfectly in his own weapon. "And before you say anything, Yang, with the number of heavy shells you go through on a daily basis I'd be penniless just making one belt of ammunition for you. Trust me. I did the math."

Adam's gaze remained on the magazine—on the Schnee symbol marking the side of it, like it was completely normal. Like it belonged on the weapon of a former commander of the White Fang. Years of being one of the faunus who mined the Dust the SDC used, all coming to this: using it to harm his own people. Adam was prepared to harm his fellow faunus. He was prepared to _kil_ _l_ his fellow faunus. He was prepared to do countless things to protect what was his: his family, his friends, his allies.

"I'll be fine without it." But, Adam could not bring himself to use a Schnee tool. Not against _them._ And, so, he turned and marched off onto the ledge, leaving Yang and Weiss stunned behind him.

His refusal finally clicked in Weiss' mind and, with a huff, she stomped off after him. "Surely, you must be joking, Adam! This is serious, this is no time for pride or petty..." The crimson-red glare turned Weiss' way left her trailing off. Yet, their conversation only quicker without words: she stopped, yet held her chin high. A respect for the line Adam drew, but not accepting it as the end of it.

Adam snorted and rolled his eyes as they faded back to emerald: she could accept whatever she wanted, but he wouldn't. She crossed her arms in defiance, he narrowed his eyes in silent demand for it to end. With a scoff, Weiss uncrossed her arms and placed the rifle magazines back at her belt, yet further up than it was before. Unconcealed. A reminder it was always there, both as a taunt and genuine offer alike. In a little under five seconds, the wordless argument began and ended.

"Whatever, dude, your loss," Yang said as she walked past them both and unceremoniously launched herself off the building into the streets below with a burst from Ember Celica. Adam dropped down after, Weiss drifting to the ground atop a glyph behind him, both just in time for a trio of White Fang soldiers to come racing out from around the corner of a decrepit building to investigate the din Yang's weaponry made, rifles in hand.

Six pairs of eyes locked onto one another.

"Where's Ruby?" Yang growled. The three soldiers raised their weapons. Yang spat and grinned. "I was hoping you'd do that." They opened fire, and Yang lunged.

* * *

Stagnant air full of decaying Dust, negativity and high heat left the vast generator room of the White Fang base a place where very few people willfully spent time. Multiple portable generators kept the White Fang base running with at least some semblance of modern life: lights, water, heat, all from stolen SDC Dust. The constant hum and crackle of power was like nails on chalkboard to the faunus' more sensitive ears.

As such, it was one of the only places Torchwick and Mercury could go to relax and not have to deal with the faunus' problems. They'd been in worse conditions. So had Emerald, for that matter, but, that only seemed to make her all the more unwilling to spend more time than she needed to in a place like this. Torchwick took a long drag from his cigar, legs crossed and resting atop a spare crate he'd dragged in.

He looked at his cigar box: empty. With a sigh, he flicked the rest of his cigar away. "Well." Torchwick said to Mercury, who sat on a crate opposite of him. "I'm gonna go start that train."

Mercury flipped to the next page of his comic. "Uuuh-huh." He paused. "Wait, what? Cinder didn't change the plan. We leave in ten days."

"Yep, and I'm changing the program. We're leaving now." Torchwick grabbed his cane and got to his feet. In that time, Mercury had already jumped up and was moving to stop him.

"Uh, no. We're _not._ " Mercury stated. "I don't know if you finally cracked or what, old man, but what Cinder says goes."

"Oh, you poor thing, you don't get it, do you?" Unfazed by Mercury, Torchwick strolled towards the door. "Walk with me." His callousness actually left the assassin with a lack of words as he watched Torchwick go by. "Now, I know there isn't too much in that thick head of yours, but, what do you think it means that we've got Red locked up in the back?"

Mercury played along. "Those Beacon kids are getting a little too nosy for their own good."

"Very good, Mercury!" He spun to face him as they walked through the door. "You're catching on! And who was _with_ those Beacon kids?"

"The motormouth."

"Who has a direct line to..."

Mercury frowned. He knew where he was going with this. Not that he liked it. "You know Cinder's not going to be too happy about this."

"God, you really are a momma's boy, aren't you? You still need her permission to go online, kid? Think for yourself! Ozpin finds out we got Red here, he's gonna bring down the hammer. We're already _planning_ to bring Atlas out here with the puppet, so that means _two_ Kingdoms breathing down our neck. That's not to mention the rest of that brat's crew coming after us." The crime lord ignored Mercury's scowl as he turned back to the generator room and motioned towards him with his cane. "Don't you worry, tin man, I'm still following Cindy's plan. I'm just... accelerating it."

"So, 'Phase 3', or whatever she calls it starts... now." With the flick of his wrist and the click of a trigger, Torchwick sent a shell rocketing past Mercury.

Into their own generators.

* * *

Ruby instinctively ducked down as the room shook, then was plunged into darkness. A pair of beeps followed by loud thumps came from around her, and Ruby could feel her wrists be freed and her aura come rushed back to her. And, if her aura was back at full, then that meant...

Pale-green light flooded back to Penny's eyes and clothes alike, leaving the room in a faint glow. "Ruby! Have you been physically or mentally harmed?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine! I should be asking you that!" Ruby wasted no time in untying the bindings around her ankles.

Penny blinked and cocked her head to one side. "Me?" The doors flung open, White Fang grunts already moving to recapture them. Penny beamed, and, one by one, her blades lit up and revealed themselves hovering just behind her.

"I'm combat ready!"

* * *

"Quit panicking, everyone!" Torchwick shouted from the train's intercom. In the distance and within the base alike, the White Fang could hear the crack and roar of gunfire. There were no telltale grunts and growls of Grimm: they were under attack. He could see them staring up at the train's speakers like deer caught in headlights from the windows of the train cab.

"Worthless..." he mumbled under his breath before returning to the microphone. "As you might be able to tell, we are now under attack! So, we're making a little adjustment to our planned departure: we're leaving _now._ Get this train in order because our next and final stop is Vale itself! Let's go!" A high-pitched battle cry rung out just outside the train and bullets bounced off of its heavy plate, followed by the din of combat. "And would someone _please_ kill that girl!" He didn't bother listening for any replies, instead dropping down in his seat at the front of the train and sighing. This was going to be a long day.

"..." Neo leaned against the side of his chair and gazed out at the seemingly endless tunnel leading out from Mountain Glenn.

"My thoughts exactly, Neo. My thoughts exactly..." He looked over his shoulder, where Mercury leaned up against the wall with his comic in his hands. "What about you? Done pouting yet that we don't have mommy's permission?"

Mercury snorted. "Hey, you'll be answering to her, not me."

"Aww, well, if it makes you feel any better, you can go out there and watch animals without a lick of training get wasted by some students all you like! Please, be my guest, but _I_ am outta here."

Mercury shrugged, but his retort was cut off when the door opened. Standing in the doorway, almost large enough to not even be able to fit through it, was Captain Almond. He stomped inside the cab, heavy chainsaw silent but carried in both hands and rippling, wave-like armor grinding against the frame as he pushed past it. Towering over every person there, he stared down at Torchwick.

"You're launching early." His voice was like grinding rocks, the effect made all the stronger by his mask muffling his words. He did not sound pleased. Behind him, Mercury smirked at Torchwick.

The crime boss snorted. "Yeah. What of it?"

His grip tensed on his chainsaw. "Is it him?"

"Pretty sure the whole squad is out there—"

 **"Is. It. Him."**

"The bullheaded one's there, don't you worry about that," Torchwick waved him off. "You'll get your turn."

The captain, new leader of the Vale Branch of the White Fang, trudged through the cab towards Torchwick. He reached out and activated the microphone. "White Fang. **Double time.** " And without another word, he left. Torchwick glanced back at Mercury once more, grinning when he saw that smirk of his having long faded.

"Alright, kids, take your places! Things are about to get loud!" He reached up, yanked a chain down and cackled as the train's horn went off.

* * *

Adam drew his blade and launched a White Fang grunt into the air with a swing just in time for Yang to leap over him and send their foe bowling over his comrades with a single punch. A rush of Dust shot past them and, when it cleared, the group was frozen to the ground. Groans and grunts of pain filled the street they were on: so far, they'd managed to defeat every soldier they'd come across without lethal injury. Close _to_ it, but not having crossed that line. How long they could keep that up, however, they didn't know.

The blare of a train horn sliced through the air. "Is... that what I think it is?" The three jogged forward, and Yang squinted off into the distance. Sure enough, past the squads of White Fang soldiers and what looked like slate gray Paladins without half the armor, an absolutely massive train sat on the rails. The dull hum of Dust reactors filled the air, but, that wasn't what got their attention.

What got their attention was that none of the soldiers were paying attention to them. Instead, they were focusing their fire on speedy blurs of red and green. Speedy blurs that looked a lot like...

"Ruby!" Yang called out and sprinted towards the fray.

"Penny!" Weiss ran in pursuit, glyphs leaving the two all the faster as they raced towards Ruby and Penny both, Adam on their trail. They could see the two ahead pause for a moment before rocketing forth to meet them.

"Catch!" Adam twisted and threw Crescent Rose. Ruby leaped up, caught it and spun to land facing the train as if she'd been running with RWAY the entire time, her dramatic entrance ruined when Yang leaped forward to embrace her. Penny skid to a stop just ahead of them, blades clumped tightly together and emitting energy as thrusters that kept her afloat. At least, until Weiss all but tackled her with a hug.

"Great, you're here! I didn't see Cinder over there, but Torchwick's got a bunch of crazy things on that train! AK-130 Knights, AK-290 Prototype Paladins, White Fang, I think I even saw some AK-190 Mark II Praetorians!" Ruby rattled off. The White Fang appeared to have abandoned their pursuit altogether, instead focusing all their efforts on boarding the train.

Yang cocked an eyebrow. "Prae-what-nows?"

"Heavy, quadrupedal assault droids, predecessors to the Paladin," Adam explained. "Where could they have even gotten them, let alone the... train..." He trailed off.

Weiss narrowed her eyes. "Adam... do you know where the train came from?"

"Not in the least. No. I wasn't there for that."

"Your heart rate and blood pressure have begun to increase, Mister Taurus! Are you okay?" Penny asked with a bright smile.

"We were just in combat, it's nothing," Adam hastily rebuked.

"Your heart rate increased further, Mister Taurus."

"... They had to get in here somehow," said Adam, ignoring Penny. "But they couldn't have kept up a consistent supply line: Mountain Glenn's tunnels were collapsed in on themselves to prevent Grimm from collecting and growing stronger where Huntsmen couldn't easily get to them. This place would've flooded with Grimm if they didn't blow the gate after they got the train in. There's only one way out that wouldn't be buried under rubble: the way to Vale."

"But wouldn't that just be another dead end?" Yang asked.

 **"Aaaaall aboard, boys and girls! Next stop, the City of Vale!"** Torchwick's voice echoed from further up ahead.

"Doesn't look like it's stopping him," Weiss said.

"My readings show that the number of White Fang assailants are above four hundred," Penny brought up and looked between the rest of the team. "I would recommend that we wait for further reinforcements from Atlas." The horn blared, and the air was filled with the rumble of the giant train beginning to lumber forward.

"There's no way they'd be able to mobilize a strike force in time," Adam countered.

"I'll try and call the Doctor!" Yang pulled out her Scroll and attempted to call. "Come on, work, work!" No connection. "I've got nothing!"

"Then, what are we going to do?" Weiss asked.

Adam cracked his neck. "The only thing we can."

Ruby cocked Crescent Rose. "We're stopping that train."


	48. V2: All Aboard

**All Aboard**

* * *

Wide enough to cover more than one track, the train that once carried precious SDC Dust and security machines chugged onward towards Vale. Its cargo may have been the same, but, under the White Fang, its purpose was far more nefarious. Ruby and Adam took the lead, darting forward at speeds fully trained Huntsmen would have trouble keeping up with, and only with their natural agility alone. Penny soared through the air above, and Weiss sprinted just behind them, albeit not before helping Yang along with a haste glyph.

"We're not going to catch it!" Yang shouted as the train accelerated onward. The distance between it and their team was turning stagnant, then beginning to grow.

"Oh, ye of little faith..." Weiss flicked her rapier, focused her aura, and laid down a winding path of glyphs. What was once merely the speed of trained Huntsmen had become unreal heights, and they gained on the train faster than any car could. As their distance halved in the span of only a few seconds, Adam narrowed his eyes: he was able to see two soldiers watching them from the balcony.

"Ruby, take the lead!" he shouted. Ruby nodded and, with a blur of red and burst of rose petals, left the rest of RWAY and Penny in the dust. In an instant, she was twirling in front of the two soldiers with her scythe unfurled. They only had the chance to raise their rifles before she slammed the blunt end of her scythe into them and swept them clean off of the train entirely. She spun to a stop in front of the door to the caboose just in time for it to open and reveal another two with their firearms pointed right at her face.

Ruby smirked and ducked. The hilt of Adam's chokuto shot over her and struck the first's head, its wielder followed right behind it, kneeing the second and sending him to the ground. Neither got back up. As Adam snatched his blade from the air and skid across the metal, Weiss and Yang jumped onto the train, Penny flying onto the platform afterwards. The train car was absolutely massive compared to a normal train—easily the size of two passenger trains side to side—but, it was absolutely full of Dust crates. Only a path just wide enough for maybe Ruby and Weiss led to the next cart.

"It's looking a little cramped in here..." Ruby said as Yang dumped the two unconscious soldiers off the train.

"My combat efficiency is lowered by approximately 39% while in enclosed areas," Penny stated. "I suggest that I move to the rooftop and maintain aerial superiority!"

"Are you sure, Penny? They could field far more soldiers..." Weiss crossed her arms and, with others around her, tried to hide her concern.

"It is 'no problem', friend!" Her blade 'thrusters' lit up once more and Penny snapped off a salute. "I will stay safe, do not worry!" She launched herself above, and Team RWAY was left alone. Mountain Glenn fell away in the distance as the train moved towards its top speed, and, ahead, lay the door of the next cart. One cart of many. Four students and a robot against an army of fanatical faunus, potentially as the only things between them and Vale itself. The four looked towards one another as the gravity of the situation set in.

"So..." Yang mustered a smile. "I guess this is what we _trained_ for, huh?" The tension deflated in the form of a pair of sighs and Ruby's snickering.

"Ruby, take point," Adam said. "You're the fastest of us and have the heaviest armament. If this turns into a shooting match, I have no doubts in your skills. I'll keep eyes on our rear."

"Hey, now, just who is the leader, here?" Ruby huffed. Adam raised an eyebrow. "... Okay, yeah, I was gonna _say_ that, but, still..." She collapsed Crescent Rose into its rifle form and marched forward grumbling. It was odd, she found, that there were only two guards. Sure, most of the train cart was chock full of Dust, but, how were they supposed to keep anyone from getting on-board?

"Uh, Adam, what's this?" Weiss piped up as they neared the door, peering at the only splash of color in the drab interior. That color came in the form of red and blue wires crisscrossing a device the size of a breadbox planted on the largest of the crates.

Adam stepped closer. "Hm... that's a bomb," he stated plainly. The three girls pressed themselves against the crates away from the explosive. With a low hum of Dust activating, a number of red lights lit across it. "Scratch that, it's an _active_ bomb, start moving, I'll cut the cart loose!" His teammates were rushing out of the door before he'd even finished his sentence. Adam followed suit, sprung to the next cart, turned to slice away the connection... and stared on with Team RWAY as the cart decoupled itself and drifted away into the darkness.

"... What?" Yang voiced their shared thought. In a blinding burst of light and rush of heat that forced them to turn away, the cart and all the Dust on it exploded, leaving only a dust cloud behind.

"Was that some security measure?" Weiss asked.

"N~nope," Ruby replied, staring right at a second bomb beside them. The four looked to one another, then, as one, dashed to the next cart. A bomb.

The next cart: a bomb.

"They all have bombs?!" Yang shouted. In the distance, another fierce rumble signaled the destruction of yet another train car. "What's the point of it? This doesn't make sense!" The sounds of gunfire and clashing of blades picked up above them, and they could hear the stomping of boots getting closer.

"Questions for later, we've got baddies!" Ruby called as the doors opened and a trio of White Fang moved into the cramped space. Behind them, they could see more than just a few white masks. Yang threw herself in front of the group, ducking under gunfire before bringing her fist up and uppercutting the first soldier. As gunfire from Ruby and Adam blew through the second's aura, she grabbed the final one's arm and, with a swift, sharp strike to his elbow, snapped it. Brutal, but, it put him out of the fight without bloodshed.

She booted the screaming White Fang member into the train cart to disrupt the incoming reinforcements, yet, still had to duck from the far heavier return fire. The air was thick with bullets from both sides, Fang soldiers having gotten entrenched, forcing RWAY to kneel behind crates and walls. The cart behind them decoupled, and their strategy became clear: wait it out.

"I love waiting for my doom as much as the next girl," Weiss leaned out to flick rays of immobilizing ice down the makeshift hall. "But, I can't help but feel just a little bit uncomfortable getting into a gunfight surrounded by _giant crates of explosive Dust!_ "

"And a bomb," Ruby added as she landed a well-placed shot to a grunt's knee.

"Not helping, Ruby! We need to get above them with Penny!" Adam, blind-firing over a crate, and Yang, unable to fire at all in fear of setting off the Dust with her destructive shotgun rounds, grunted in approval.

"Got it! Ice up that door and give us cover!" Ruby called out. Weiss spun from her crate, and with one wave of her rapier, sent a wave of ice to freeze over the door. Yang blasted the top hatch open, and Team RWAY jumped out onto the roof. Adam had pulled Yang up when he noticed Ruby staring off at the door... or, more specifically, at the three collapsed soldiers beside it.

"Ruby, we need to move!" The bomb's light flickered on.

Her hands tensed around Crescent Rose. "I can't!"

"They made their choice!"

"And I've made mine!" She vanished in a burst of rose petals, and Adam gritted his teeth. Below, Ruby slammed into the wall of ice from her sheer speed and looked over the three. She latched Crescent Rose onto her back and worked on grabbing the first. It'd take some aura to boost her strength, but she was certain she could make two trips to carry all three out.

"... What are you doing?" Ruby froze, then looked up at the source of the voice: it was the one with the broken arm, watching her from against the frozen wall. He hadn't been knocked unconscious, or, was he just regaining consciousness now? She found herself fumbling for words, having not actually expected them to be awake.

"I-I..." She gulped and steeled herself. "I'm saving you." This close, Ruby could see that, even with his mask, he only looked as young as her.

The soldier's lips parted, yet no words passed them. Finally, he found just one: "Why?"

"I'm a Huntress! It's kinda what we do!" She attempted to lift him up and jump to the hatch only to be harshly slammed back down to the ground. The Fang soldier cried out, and when Ruby looked back, she found the reason he hadn't tried to move before: his leg and a cat's tail were trapped in the ice.

"Okay, okay, don't worry, I can fix this!" Ruby tried to ignore the frown on his face as she decided to grab the other unconscious grunt first. She'd just turned around when the cart shook. They'd been decoupled. She wouldn't have enough time, not with how fast the bomb would go off after that happened. The bomb that was beginning to blink rapidly. She could break the ice wall, but she'd need her scythe for that, and then she _definitely_ wouldn't have the time to save all of them. The two who were unconscious or the one who could see her frozen in place having to make this decision. This wasn't a fair choice.

"... 'Ruby', right?" The young soldier spoke up, then pointed to the hatch and offered a somber, resigned smile. "Thanks for trying." This wasn't fair at all.

The ice wall exploded inwards in a rush of fire, and a blur of black and red crashed through the remnants. Ruby noticed only now how they hadn't slowed down at all. She looked outside to see a giant, black symbol of the Schnee family on the train cart ahead of her, Weiss focusing with her eyes squeezed shut. Yang waved her on, gauntlets still smoking from firing on the frozen door.

"Ruby! Come on!" Adam shouted to her, one of the unconscious soldiers slung over his shoulder. Ruby looked between them, grabbed the last two soldiers and grinned. There was always the third option: not make the choice alone. In a rush of rose petals, she was atop the train cart with Adam in pursuit. Weiss let out a deep breath and forced the cart back as far as she could. It wasn't enough. The explosion launched the team and their tagalongs across the cart, Yang and Adam nearly sliding off of the train altogether. They groaned and all forced themselves up, wounded soldier included.

They'd gotten up into another warzone: they couldn't even count the number of White Fang soldiers advancing on Penny. She weaved between burning lines of lead from more opportunistic shots, blades sweeping out and striking down any soldier who got near with impunity. One was yanked up by a nigh-invisible string by his leg, another blade darting out in the blink of an eye to silence him before he could even react. Still, with the number of people coming her way, she couldn't hold on forever. Team RWAY rushed off to assist, weapons drawn and firing as soon as they found targets to aim at.

And, behind them, dragging his comrades to the edge of the cart one-by-one and throwing them onto the next before it, too, detached, the wounded Fang soldier watched. One of them had a pistol just small enough for him to wield with one hand while his aura recovered, and, with some difficulty, he drew it from the holster. He had a perfect shot on them. A perfect shot on the intruders who were ruining everything. He raised his pistol.

A perfect shot on the human who risked her life to save him.

He hesitated and, for a moment, he let his aim dip. Then, he let the gun slip from his hand altogether.

* * *

Yang ducked and weaved around a number of soldiers' attempts to bring their blades down upon her, each one being responded to with a swift one-two: a jab to the gut to open them up further, a swipe to their jaw to knock them on their back and out of the fight. She could feel it, exactly what Adam was talking about: sometimes she could feel a trained aura trying to push back her brutal blows enough to force her to throw another strike or two into her rapid combos, other times, that punch faced no resistance whatsoever, and her foe crumpled in on themselves.

She was a brutal fighter, she knew she was: Junior's men didn't walk out of there without a scratch, after all, but, she just couldn't bring herself to pull the trigger of Ember Celica. The White Fang grunts looked the same. There was no difference between someone who could've gone to Beacon and someone whose aura was as thin as paper until her fist hit them... and, in a way Yang wasn't used to, that scared her.

Not that she let anyone else know, of course. Even her foes, as she swept another soldier off his feet and, with a confident wink, punched him through the train car's hatch below. She was the strong one! She couldn't let the rest of her team see her down in the dumps even in a big fight like this.

It wasn't like they were having trouble holding back: Ruby blew straight past her, sweeping past entire groups and throwing them to the ground with grand sweeps of the back end of her scythe. Weiss would have them immobilized in ice and launched, one by one, into the hatches of carts further up and hopefully away from those doomed to destruction. They were a well-oiled non-lethal machine.

Except for two of them: Adam and Penny. Opposites in every way: one's a faunus, one's a robot. One's about as dark and edgy as it got, the other didn't look like she could hurt a fly if it killed her kitten. One's a former terrorist leader, one's an Atlesian soldier.

But in their fighting? Identical. They'd make efforts to disable over kill, whether it be turning to boxing up close or aiming for limbs, but, neither so much as flinched when one of their blades would cleave a faunus' arm away, or pierce one purely by accident. The closest they'd get to it was a second, swifter strike to finish the job.

What worried her was that, while Weiss made sure to avoid that carnage, Ruby, for all her attempts to save anyone who so much as slipped off the side, didn't so much as blink when someone was slain beside her. Like she accepted it. Like she was used to it. Was she like her, just keeping it stashed away for later? Or—

Her chain of thoughts were interrupted when her usual one-two was not just avoided, but earned her a slash of a blade to her side. Ignoring the blistering pain, she spun on her heels and focused on who was able to pull _that_ off. The first thing she noticed was the soldier's weapon: a large axe with a shaft split into the two barrels of a shotgun. It wasn't like the mass-produced rifles, pistols and blades of the grunts. This one was special.

"So, come here often?" Yang teased and placed her hands on her hips. The woman, who had curling horns protruding from her hood, just rolled the axe in her hand.

"Aw, must be on the quiet car." She sprung forward and switched up her style: if straightforward wouldn't work, she'd just have to keep her guessing! A hook to the right led into her firing Ember Celica for a sudden twist of momentum to send a powerful kick crashing into her stomach. To Yang's surprise, the woman kept jumping back, not falling for her tricks no matter how many jabs and kicks Yang would throw.

"You really can't teach a human new tricks, can you?" The Fang soldier taunted her and, when Yang threw an uppercut as a reply, ducked back and unloaded both barrels into her stomach. Sent flying back, Yang rolled back up to her feet: they were almost at the end of the train, now. Another detonation filled the tunnel with light. She squinted her eyes as her opponent reloaded her weapon: this girl was countering her like she'd already known how she fought. Now that Yang thought about it, she looked kinda familiar...

The blonde jogged forward, then fired Ember Celica behind her to throw her into a wild lunge: a move she'd done countless times at Beacon. By now, it was practically her signature.

Which was exactly why, rather than pull back her fist for a punch, she curled up and braced herself. The Fang soldier slid forward, snapped up her shotgun-axe up and fired straight up. If she'd gone for her classic lunge, it would've been a direct hit. As it was, it was just some bee stings on her aura as she passed overhead.

Yang rolled to her feet just at the edge of the train cart. "Have we met, before?"

She rolled the axe in her hands. "Beacon."

Yang scowled could feel the heat burning around her and in her eyes both. "You were with the ones that attacked with the assassin."

"I might've been around," she said with a smirk. The two began to circle one another on the roof.

"People could've died in that attack!"

"Eh, _humans_ would have died. Big difference."

"They fought with you! Learned with you! You _knew_ them, how could you attack them?"

She growled and barreled forward, finally going on the offensive with an overhead swing that Yang easily caught on her gauntlets. "Spoken like a true brat. You don't know the first thing about us! About our pain!"

Yang kicked her back and jumped to the cart. The fighting had long left them, and even the wounded kid Ruby saved was further up than they were. It was for a good reason: who knew when the next car would fall away and take anyone who was on it with them? "It's not worth this! You're gonna kill that many people? For what! How can you be that screwed in the head!"

"For all of us! What do you want me to do!" Frustrated, she rushed forward swung up from below, but only got her axe struck down and a jab to the face for her troubles. Sent reeling, she fired the last shell harmlessly in Yang's direction just to keep her away. "This is the only chance we have! The only way things will change, don't you see?!"

"I see that you've lost your mind!" Yang shot off a series of opening jabs, but the former Beacon student parried and blocked each one. Yang remembered her more, now: she was one of Adam's 'students'. One of the ones who fought in the sparring ring the most. She guessed she must've been gathering information.

"I don't care what's in my way. The faunus _will_ have their time in the light! I don't care if I have to go through you, through Adam, or through your sister to do it!" Enveloped by frustration, she leaped forward with considerable speed, axe held high. She'd left herself open at the worst time. That threat, that simple threat to her sister, was enough to push that anger off a cliff. Tied to it was all of the fear, all the stress, all of the fury and anger at her, the White Fang, the attack on Beacon, _everything._

With blazing-red eyes and a fist shrouded in flames hot enough to begin flickering blue, Yang slammed her fist into the Fang member's face hard enough to shatter her mask and aura alike. She went flying back to the ground, bouncing off of the cart's roof before falling still on the furthest of them. She twitched, but remained still. Yang was left panting, smoke flowing from between her fingers and teeth alike as she glared at the traitor.

The cart detached itself. By the time that fact truly reached Yang, it was already too far for her to try anything. The former student twitched once more, and shakily forced herself to her knees. She looked around, Yang able to make out the turn of her head from side to side, then down towards the growing distance between her and the train. With wide, fearful eyes, she looked up towards Yang, who stood like a deer caught in headlights. In that moment, without her mask, she'd ceased being just a faceless goon.

In the next moment, she'd ceased being altogether.

* * *

She didn't press the trigger, nor did she set those bombs, but she put that girl—a former peer, no less—in the perfect spot to die because of it. That much was her fault and, yet, Yang didn't feel as horrid as she had expected. Ruby was crushed to the point where even she couldn't console her, yet, though her steps were slow, she could still start walking backwards. She could still act. She felt like nothing actually... changed. Did this make her a terrible person? Did she just not care as much as she should?

She took a deep breath, then threw those thoughts in the same closet as the rest of the questions she asked herself and locked it tight. Questions for later. Problems for later. Right now, there was a train to stop.

She'd just turned around when she heard the roars. They were quiet, at first, able to mix in with the rumble and shake of the train or the shuddering of the tunnels from the explosion, but Yang could still hear them. She looked over her shoulder and, in the darkness, she saw the embers that were the Grimm's eyes. Countless embers. She could make out shapes: Beowolves, Creeps, Death Stalkers and, at the hordes' head, the biggest King Taijitu she'd ever seen, with eyes and spines that glowed sea-green, and a hood like that of a cobra.

Her eyes widened. It all made sense, now. The White Fang weren't just going to attack Vale where they wouldn't see it coming, they were using the bombs to draw Grimm after them and into the city. With what they had now, they'd stand no chance against a whole city's police, even if they were pretty weak. But, with a legion of Grimm pouring out? Controlled by... whatever those mutant Grimm were?

The White Fang didn't just want a terrorist attack.

They wanted **war.**


	49. V2: Check

**Check  
**

* * *

"Guys! Guys, something's up!" Yang raced towards the team.

"Little! Busy! Sis!" Each one of Ruby's words was punctuated by a shot sent down at the encroaching horde of White Fang. Safety had been given up by their enemies, now, and more soldiers than they could hope to fit advanced across the train. A few sacrifices were necessary for their grand scheme.

"No, no, it's important!" She stopped only to duck under a spray of gunfire and slid into the middle of her team, ducking behind a lifted hatch for cover. "They're leading Grimm into the city! It's what the bombs are doing: it's drawing them in from above!"

"What? That's insane! Why would they do that, it'll attack them, too!" Weiss brought up a wall of ice that nearly scraped the walkways zooming by overhead. They needed cover and time to think: even on this more open area, the sheer number of the enemy had turned this into yet another protracted gunfight. At the least, as far up as they were, there no longer seemed to be any bombs.

"Yeah, but they've got one of those weird green Grimm, except it's _way_ bigger. It's a mutated King Taijitu, or something!"

"Surely, they can't expect to be able to garner any 'respect' when they're sending Remnant's greatest foe on Vale—including their own kind! What do they get out of this?"

"Weiss has a very good point," Penny agreed. "The primary operational goals of the White Fang have been to garner attention, spread fear and collect resources, usually by targeting humans. The Vale Branch has been the most fanatical, but they're the _least_ oriented towards strategic goals!"

"Unless they want an occupation," Adam interjected, and all eyes were on him. "With the Grimm serving as their front line, they would be able to use their own troops to secure tactical and strategic targets across Vale. Using sleeper cells scattered throughout the metropolis, they could also cripple task force reaction times and emergency systems. The Kingdoms focus on their walls: they wouldn't expect a strike to come from within... and Vale, being more orderly than Mistral yet less militarized than Atlas, would be the perfect target." He'd drawn up the plans, himself. Back then, however, an event like this was unthinkable.

Before anyone else could speak, a ice-blue beam of plasma sliced through the frozen wall, cutting a perfect hole through its center. Beyond, a Praetorian clambered forward, each of its four, spider-like legs denting the roof of the cart. The heavy Dust cannons on its arms and shoulders began to glow again. Adam grimaced: he'd gotten enough of that thing conquering this train, the first time. Ruby grinned and pulled back her rifle's bolt.

"There's no way we can take that on!" Weiss shouted.

"It's weaker than it looks." Adam rolled his neck and got ready for when the rest of their cover collapsed.

"I mean, we _have_ taken on a full Paladin before," Yang added. The four ducked as a spray of rockets shattered what remained of the wall, leaving only chunks that barely came up to their chests. The Praetorian was not alone: a Paladin leaped onto the train behind it and unfolded its guns. It may not have had the heavily armored, insectoid faceplate or smooth armor, but, its armaments were certainly the same.

"... On second thought," Adam decided, "going back under sounds like a good idea!" A set of four nods later, and, under covering fire from Ruby, they all gathered around the hatch.

"I'll stay up here with Penny!" Ruby called. "That Paladin looks like a prototype, we should be able to stand up to it. Right, Penny?" She looked over her shoulder to find Penny blankly staring ahead at the approaching targets, her blades moving on their own to block any incoming bullets, but without Penny herself recognizing anything.

"Penny? Penny, come on!"

* * *

"Private Poledina!" General Ironwood shouted, his face visible just barely in the corner of her eye, speaking through her personal communications link. His voice was muffled and face fuzzy, but Penny could hear well enough. "You are to leave the operations zone immediately, your safety is currently the highest priority."

 _"I... I'm sorry, General, but I'm afraid I can't do that,"_ she responded in her thoughts.

"You are currently in one of the most dangerous locations in the Kingdom of Vale and I can hear the gunfire even now. Evacuate. Immediately."

 _"I cannot leave my friends behind!"_

"They will be rescued by our task force. This is an _order_ , Private Poledina, abandon the battlefield," General Ironwood stressed. She thought she could hear someone else calling to her, but her mind was entirely focused on this.

 _"General..."_ She didn't move.

The general took a deep breath and, for a moment, his expression took on a peculiar emotion that her databanks could not identify. "So be it. As Priority Administrator One James Ironwood, **I order you to evacuate and return to Vale, by yourself, immediately.** "

 _[Keyword "Priority Administrator" recognized]_

 _[Searching administrator list. . .]_

 _[Searching. . .]_

 _[Error: no prioritized personnel found. No priority administrators found. Administrator list empty. Deleting. . .]_

Something waved across her sight, and Penny realized she was sitting down, now. Someone was waving a hand in front of her. Penny looked over to find Ruby ducking low beneath the shattered remnants of their cover, calling out to her with the emotion identified as worry on her face. Weiss was beside her, holding up her weapon and forced to her knee as a glyph tried its hardest to hold back a Praetorian trying to kick its way past. Her friends. Her friends were worried about her.

Penny got an idea. Inside her systems, she mentally reached out for the switches managing her connection to Ironwood... and started rapidly flipping it on and off.

* * *

On the bridge of an aerial command cruiser, Ironwood raised an eyebrow as Penny's connection, having been perfectly stable—if fuzzy—until now, started to falter.

" _Sorry... can't hear... Ironwood... going through... tunnel... call back!"_

 _Click._ The call disconnected, leaving Ironwood staring in growing concern and shock both.

* * *

"I'm with you one hundred percent, Ruby!" Penny suddenly leaped up to her feet quick enough to have Ruby squeak and duck down. She fired her blades out hard enough to send the Praetorian skidding away and turned to Weiss. "I am capable of dismantling any Atlesian machine to-date! Ruby and I can handle this!"

"Stay safe, Penny."

"You too, friend!" Weiss let the glyph fall and leaped down into the train, her last sight of her friends being Penny and Ruby both brandishing their weapons. She hoped it wouldn't be the last time she saw them.

Yang and Adam waited beneath. They looked between one another, then, without a word, rushed forward. Without being loaded for the most potent explosions possible, these carts were quite spacious, now: there were crates of Dust and weaponry around, of course, but, now, all three of them had more than enough room to move around. They felt empty.

And, considering how there wasn't even a soul in the cars they ran through, that emptiness, paired with the stomping of feet and gunfire above, left the air thick with tension. When the next door opened to reveal a familiar, short, mute girl waiting for them on the other side, they were almost relieved. That relief, of course, quickly gave way to rage.

Neopolitan bowed, twirling her parasol on her shoulder. The three dropped into combat stances immediately and, with a smirk and roll of her eyes, she snapped her parasol shut, she pointed to herself, then to Yang.

Yang spat and popped her neck. "What stops us from just beating the crap out of you, three to one?"

She tapped her chin as if in thought, then shrugged and turned to stroll towards the door.

"How cowardly: either you pick one of us apart, or you run away?" Weiss questioned her. Neo merely shrugged as she reached the door.

Adam narrowed his eyes. "No. She's saying there's more ahead. More that she can call in." Neo turned and clapped for him. He'd figured it out!

"Fine. You two go, we got unfinished business, anyway: I heard you were messing with my sister back on the docks!" Yang shouted as Adam and Weiss warily made their way around Neo on each side, hands on their weapons, yet, Neo made no attempt to stop them. All she did was turn towards Weiss and, with a smile all too wide, pressed her finger to her neck, just like her stiletto once was to Weiss' own. Any further teasing was cut short by a blast from Ember Celica that forced Neo to flip aside.

The door shut behind the two, and Yang was left alone with Neo.

* * *

The cars ahead began to show signs of life: White Fang soldiers waiting to climb above or relaying orders to others above and around. However, no longer restrained by the tight interiors, the dangers of fighting around multitudes of explosives and Dust, or even needing to throw unconscious goons further ahead and out of the bomb's reaches, Weiss and Adam were free to move and strike with impunity. They didn't stand a chance.

Until, at last, they came upon a room with ten White Fang soldiers waiting for them. That, however, was not what drew Adam up short. What did was the one standing at the rear of the car: standing at seven feet tall and clad in rippling, ivory armor reminding one of the waves of the sea and a mask that covered his entire head was a mass of strength and muscle greater than even Tacet's. Captain Almond, current leader of the Vale Branch of the White Fang, formerly just a lieutenant. In one hand, he held a pale tower shield.

Seeing Adam freeze in place brought Weiss up short, as well. She raised her weapon, then, noticed not a soul had moved. The grunts were trembling, their weapons raised, yet, not a single one had fired whereas their comrades were ready to shoot on sight. There was something familiar about some of them, however. Young faces fit to blurry memories. Her eyes widened a little when she saw the black armbands they wore, standing out against their bare arms: they were Adam's former students.

"... I heard you made captain, Edward. Good for you."

"Is that what you have to say, after all of this time?" He slammed his shield down. "Pathetic."

"I know that whatever I have to say, it won't change what is going to happen next. You!" He pointed towards the grunts. "Leave now, you'll only get in our way." It spoke to his ability to command that, while some looked up to their true leader, some already began backing for the door.

"He speaks the truth. I cannot guarantee your safety, fellow members. Go." The soldiers didn't spare a glance as they rushed for the door, all except for one, who peered back a last time. Cheetah ears that poked through her hood flicked nervously, and she ran off. The door shut.

"I should thank you, Adam. Maybe if I try hard enough, I can believe you finally listened to me and brought me a Schnee. I've been waiting to kill one of you for so long..." A low chuckle rumbled through him, and he retrieved his signature weapon, a weaponized chainsaw, from his back. He let his shield stand alone for just long enough to yank its cord and fill the room with its cry. Black smoke coiled from it: signs of its reliance on old petroleum.

"Weiss, go. I'll handle him."

"No." Captain Almond grabbed his shield and stomped closer. "She will die by my hand... but you, Adam, I give the chance to live. Return to me. Return to us. Don't let my last memory of you be your carcass next to the one we despise." Adam clenched his fist and grimaced. Weiss found herself instinctively standing in front of him. Adam's response was to bring his hand to his hilt and steel himself.

Behind his all-encompassing mask, Almond sighed. "Tell me. Was it your heart, in the end? Did that traitorous Belladonna get to you?" He looked down upon Weiss. "Or have you sullied yourself with something even more disgusting?"

Scowling, Weiss lit a pathway of glyphs to Almond and shot forward, passing under his guard and digging her rapier under a gap in his armor before he could so much as move his shield. Only grunting from the blow, he forced her back with his tower shield until the report of gunfire drew his attention. Without even looking, he swung his chainsaw high, barely missing Adam and his blade as he soared above. With his back open, Almond could prevent Weiss from slipping another blow in, but not Adam from drawing his blade across his back. Sparks flew from the impact, and his aura flashed a ruddy red.

"You've made your choice!" He swung his chainsaw for Adam and backed up, forced on a constant defensive from the rain of piercing blows and searing slashes from Weiss and Adam alike on either side. Weiss stepped back, brought Myrtenaster up and charged it with fire Dust while Adam kept the captain busy. Right when she lunged, however, he roared in defiance, twisted to fully face Adam and slammed his tower shield down hard to dent the steel floor of the train. Weiss didn't see the chainsaw coming on the backswing until it was too late, and she was flung back from the impact into crates lining the sides of the car.

Captain Almond advanced on Adam, lightning-fast flicks of Wilt and rapid shots from Blush both bouncing off of his tower shield. When he had gotten far enough to get in range, he threw himself into a mighty swing of his chainsaw that forced Adam to flip over it. An easy task especially, Adam realized, when it wasn't aimed for him: Almond finished his twirl by spearing Weiss against the crate she was against. Only quick thinking and a shield of energy summoned from her rapier kept her aura from being shredded. Her grunts of effort were muffled by the roar of Almond's weapon.

Once again, he'd left his back open. Adam darted out of Almond's sight and, when he'd returned, it was as a black blur swinging his foot for his head. It barely even nudged him. Still, it was enough for Weiss to roll out from under the assault as Adam landed. Almond growled and tried to move towards her once more, only for his body to refuse to move. Weiss, standing with Myrtenaster raised, smirked and looked down at his feet. Almond followed her gaze down, and found a glyph black as night locking him in place.

It wasn't the worst of his problems.

That would be the crimson blade immediately stabbing up between the plates of his armor. Crimson aura geysered from the strike like blood, yet, it stood strong. Roaring once more, this time in betrayal, Almond forced his body to take one step, then broke into a full dash through the glyph at Weiss, saw bared. A flash of black and red parried the blade, and Adam stood beside her one more, sheathing his blade. A lull fell in their combat.

"What's wrong? Surprised? Go on, give it your best shot..." He laughed, wisps of crimson escaping from beneath his mask. Weiss and Adam looked between each other. She raised an eyebrow and glanced towards the White Fang leader, then back to him. Did he know he was this powerful?

Adam shook his head and fell back into his combat stance. _"Check,"_ he muttered to Weiss, then drew his blade and leaped into a flurry of slashes. He had no reason to hold back here, throwing every ounce of speed into his blows until the sweep of his blade seemed to leave two slashes in its wake. Each time Almond tried to search for Weiss, a rifle shot to the helmet would force his attention back down onto him, and away from the glyphs forming, one by one, around him.

Soon, Adam's strikes were joined by Weiss' own: whereas he was an endless storm of strikes in front of his former comrade, Weiss leaped from glyph to glyph, striking down at unorthodox angles and vanishing just as quickly. Almond could barely manage to hold Adam back with his shield, and every attempt to bring his chainsaw down would leave him parried and Adam glowing with more power. Trying to deflect every blow from Weiss was an impossibility.

Almond stumbled back towards the stairs leading up to the door, legs trembling from the weight of the blows. No matter where he turned, no matter where he moved or focused his defense, there would be some part of him open to assault. It was, effectively—

"Checkmate!" Weiss called from above Almond as she charged her rapier with fire Dust once more. Adam glowed with the power of his Semblance and, from two directions, the two bolted down towards him. Neither believed he would even be able to move.

Let alone bring his shield in and, with a shout, force a wave of aura out from it massive enough to blast both of them backwards. As Adam and Weiss rolled back up to their feet, the air stayed tinged with crimson and tasted of iron, even as the aura faded. Panting, Almond stood just before the door. All three caught their breath.

"We've had him on the defensive since we began," Adam said in hushed tones. "Go to Torchwick, I can handle him myself."

"Something's not right about him, Adam..." Weiss looked over their foe. He'd taken strikes that would have put down one of their peers in a single blow with little more than grunts and growls. Even after an expenditure of aura of that caliber, his aura barely even flickered. They'd barely dented him.

"I'll be fine, Weiss. Go!" Almond began to stomp towards them, each heavy breath drawing in hints of bloody-red aura into his mask. Adam and Weiss glared at one another, their silent contest of wills cut short only from the approaching captain. Finally, Weiss sighed.

"Fine... catch!" She flung something at Adam just as Almond broke into a sprint. Instinct had him snatch it from the air, glancing at it only once it was in his grasp. The two Dust magazines sat in his hand. Weiss was already running towards Almond before anything could be done and, as much as he held disdain for it, he wasn't petty enough to try to throw it back at a time like this.

Weiss flipped over Almond towards the door. "You aren't going anywhere, Schnee!" In a total betrayal of his former sluggishness, he kicked backwards and turned to swat her from the sky.

"I beg to differ!" In the blink of an eye, Adam was in front of him, blade halfway out of its sheath. The world was drowned in red. Surrounding crates burst into wilted petals, their contents lost to the wind. When Adam sheathed his blade and color returned to the world, Weiss was gone. Now, it was only the former commander of the White Fang and the current one, ducking behind his shield that slowly wilted away from the gash in its center. For a moment, only the rumble of Captain Almond's chainsaw filled the air.

The shield ground against the steel floor as he moved it aside. They stood only a yard away, eyes boring into one another.

"It doesn't have to be this way, Almond," Adam spoke.

"That's why this hurts me so much, _**traitor.**_ " Almond threw his shield aside. It decayed into blackened rose petals the moment it touched the ground.

* * *

They were wasting precious time against their foes. It was for that reason and that reason only that Weiss was able to put her hate for the White Fang aside enough to avoid their soldiers rather than combat them. She emerged back into the warzone as she reached open cars lined with dormant Paladins and Praetorians both. The roar of gunfire was ever-present among the rumble of the train. Roars and screeches of Grimm came interspersed with the blasts of lost carts that were almost deafening even this far up. The air was thick with the scent of Dust.

Weiss weaved between dormant Paladins on their open carts, laying swift stabs and immobilizing rays of energy Dust into anyone who raised firearms at her. She realized she had an issue: the cars ahead were undoubtedly the barracks and effective source of the White Fang soldiers. If Penny's calculations were correct, they hadn't even seen a fraction of their full forces... which left the majority of the White Fang standing between her and Torchwick. So, when she reached the end of the platform, Weiss did the unthinkable: she jumped.

A black glyph anchored her to the side of the train for just a step before her speed and a pathway of snow-white glyphs let Weiss dash across the train unseen and unbidden. Though it was certainly draining, Weiss thought, it was far less than having to fight _hundreds._ She leaped off of the corner of a cart to roll into the front car. Torchwick remained in his chair, facing the coming darkness of the tunnel with his weaponized cane hanging carelessly off of one arm.

The door locked behind her. "Why _hello_ there, Little Red!" He spun in his chair to face her. "... Oh! Oh, now isn't _this_ a pleasant surprise! Really, Ice Queen, we 'ought to stop meeting like this, people will say we're in love..." Torchwick propped his head up on his fist.

"Enough games, Torchwick." Weiss leveled her rapier at the crime lord. "Halt this train immediately and you _might_ manage to escape the death penalty once this is all over."

Torchwick snorted. "You _really_ need to work on your negotiations, Princess." Weiss felt her lip curl in disdain, but forced her expression back to neutrality. She had the advantage here: he'd recently lost a leg, any prosthetic he had would not yet be as efficient as his natural one, and while his clothes were well-kept, he looked a mess. Dull hair. Sullen cheeks. Darkness under the eyes visible even though he clearly tried to hide it under makeup. He must've just recovered.

"And _you_ need to work on that dreadful mascara job of yours." That wiped the smirk off of Torchwick's face. His orange aura flickered around him before he used his cane to force himself to his feet.

"Well, well, kitty's got claws... though, I guess 'has a bite with that bark' is more fitting for you."

Weiss narrowed her eyes before it clicked. "Wha—how dare you!"

"Ha! You wouldn't have stood a chance against Mercury. Frankly, I'm surprised he didn't decide to shove his boot in your face before you got here."

The heiress had begun cycling through her Dust cylinders, knowing Torchwick was stalling. She paused. "Mercury is _here?_ "

Torchwick raised an eyebrow. "You didn't know?" He cackled. "Oh, man, one of you is about to get fuc—" Weiss lunged.

* * *

To say that the battle atop the train was going well was a grave understatement. Between Penny's downright terrifying power and Ruby's speed, the Praetorian was rapidly dismantled and only the upgrades to their firepower let the prototype Paladin survive any longer. The fact that the massive machines made it more difficult for their own infantry to get a good shot or even avoid the crossfire was even easier. All they had to do now was get to where the Paladins were coming from and they'd be home free!

Ruby and Penny's rush was brought to an abrupt stop as another prototype Paladin managed to get itself working and crashed down onto the train car, weapons unfolding. Penny took the lead and brought her blades to bear. Ruby spun her scythe behind the hatch at the train's center and got ready to snipe the machine's sensors.

She heard a loud crash just in front of her, saw metal advance, and the next thing she knew she was tumbling and flipping her way down the train. Ruby heard Penny shouting for her as she shakily pushed her way up to her knees and looked around. A mangled hatch, the thing that must've struck her, laid on one side. Ruby stumbled to her feet as she looked to her other side.

" 'Sup, Red." Mercury nodded to her with a smirk. "Ready for round two?"


	50. V2: Split

**Split  
**

* * *

Yang stared down her substantially shorter opponent. They were barely two feet away from each other, now. Neo smirked and changed the colors of her eyes from strawberry-pink to chocolate-brown with every blink. Yang went over what she knew: this 'Neo' chick was fast enough to make a fool out of her sister and Penny, and the latter of which Yang knew was a literal killing machine in combat. Unfortunately, according to her sister, Neo hadn't so much as thrown a single punch besides jabbing her _once_ , so just what she could do on the attack, Yang didn't know.

But she didn't need to know about her offensive abilities. Yang had all she needed to know from that smirk on her face. Neo cocked her head to one side, impatience flickering in her eyes. She was cocky. Overconfident. Just like Torchwick. No different than any other one of Junior's thugs she beat down. Still, Yang thought, she might as well test the waters.

Yang smirked back. In the blink of an eye, she brought up her guard and sent a punch at Neo's face. In a fraction of that time, she was left curling over and backing up from Neo spearing her up under her ribs with her bare hand. Neo winked, changing the color of her eye yet again.

She growled, but, she still had the reach advantage! Yang kept her distance and fired off a rapid series of jabs and crosses. Neo dodged each one. She swung low to catch her off guard. Neo swayed her hips to evade them. She fired at the ground to disturb her balance. Neo twirled around each with ease. Yang faked left and kicked at her right. Neo, without so much as sparing her fist a glance, swung her parasol down to block her and opened it to leave her stumbling. A sharp stiletto to the same spot she'd struck once already knocked Yang over.

Alright.

So maybe this girl _did_ have a reason to be cocky.

Neo suddenly crashed down on her stomach before flipping over her.

This did not make Yang any happier about the situation. Neo leaned over her and grinned. Yang fired up at her smug face to force her to back off, rolled herself back and fired Ember Celica to send her flying feet-first at her opponent. The short criminal simply twirled around her attempt. Heat rose off of Yang as she walked backwards, watching Neo soundlessly giggle at her.

She'd give her something to laugh about!

Neo gave Yang all the distance she needed, even backing up herself while Yang edged closer to the door back. Her short, annoying, cocky opponent peered over with a curious look in her eye, reached out her hand, and beckoned her forward.

 _"Bring it,"_ she mouthed. Yang's eye twitched. With a roar, she gathered up all her aura and whatever scraps of her Semblance she could muster from the few blows and launched herself at Neo at the speed of a cannonball. Neo, aiming her parasol up with her point aimed at her, no doubt expected a wild haymaker that would've left her open.

If her eyes widening and turning white meant anything, she clearly didn't expect Yang to lean back, jut her legs out and drop kick her. Only a turn and timely open of her parasol let her deflect the brunt of the blow, but, her wrist was yanked off in an awkward position, weapon nearly torn from her hands in the impact. She was knocked off-balance.

It was exactly what Yang was waiting for.

With a wild grin, Yang flipped herself up to her feet and launched herself forward yet again, this time into a blistering flurry of punches and kicks. Neo was finally on the backfoot, blocking constantly with her closed parasol, unable to regain her precious footing. Kicks aimed at her legs and blasts from her gauntlets made sure of that. She might not have been punching her smug face in just yet, but, she could _taste_ that moment getting closer and closer. She wasn't attacking. She was entirely on the defensive.

She might've even been burning through her aura, but, a pint-sized brat like her probably wouldn't take more than a couple punches to really take down. Yang was doing this. She was _winning._

Neo clumsily shoved her back with her parasol and paused to catch her breath. That pause was all Yang needed: she threw everything she had into one kick to the face.

Both Neo and the air around her shattered like glass, and the next thing Yang knew, her other leg was hooked from behind by Neo's parasol and, still mid-kick, she didn't stand a chance when she was yanked, sent spiraling in the air and kicked off into the crates of Dust and weaponry lining the walls.

Oh, right.

Semblance.

* * *

"Ruby!" Penny called out in the distance and turned to race to Ruby's side as Mercury loomed over er. A second Paladin crashing down in front of her instead left her trapped between two powerful machines. Though Penny was powerful, two Paladins—even prototypes—would need everything she had. A rescue was all but impossible. There was no one who could separate Ruby and Mercury, now.

"Mercury," Ruby hissed, a hand over her pained nose as she steadied herself on the rumbling roof of the train. She felt heat rising, but, at least it wasn't bleeding.

"Woah, bit of deja vu, here," he replied, hands shoved into his pockets."But, hey, you held on to your gun, this time. Look at you, learning something!"

Hearing him be so casual at a time like this sent a spike of anger through Ruby's heart. "I don't get it! Why are you doing this!"

Mercury shrugged. "Eh, what can I say? Cinder pays well."

"It's... it's just about _money?_ " Ruby could understand wanting to fight for what they thought was right, she could understand having some grand goal or even wanting to be on the winning side. It didn't make them _not_ villains, but, to go through all of this, to put so many people at risk just for _money?_ The spike of anger twisted itself and, with a battle cry, Ruby darted over the short distance and twirled her scythe. Mercury was quick. That became apparent from the moment he casually stepped and weaved between her first strikes.

Ruby kept up the pressure, twirling and lashing with Crescent Rose until every attack flowed into the next like water. Mercury dodged each and every last one and, what frustrated Ruby most was that he never even took his hands from his pockets. The shaft finally struck home on Mercury's collar, her blade right behind his torso. Mercury snapped a kick into her face faster than she could even see, sending her sprawling once more. Her head was laying off the side of the car's roof.

Gunfire sounded off beside her, and she brought her scythe up just in time to block Mercury's stomp. Her arms shuddered from the pressure.

"That can't be all, no one's that evil!"

"I'm glad you have so much faith in me." Ruby saw the gun barrels in Mercury's boot. At any time, he could've fired, even to just distract her with the flash, but he refused. He was toying with her.

"Is it Cinder?"

Mercury rolled his eyes, but his smirk faded. "Just give it up. Truth is, I don't care about a single thing that's going on, here, as long as she's happy." Mercury fired and Ruby burst into rose petals. Without missing a beat, Mercury twisted and launched a kick behind him. Ruby stared with wide eyes as her attempt to strike from behind only met Mercury's leg. She fired to give herself some distance, but Mercury was on her in a heartbeat. She had to rely on her Semblance just to keep up, rose petals flying left and right as she parried and evaded Mercury's kicks.

Unlike him, however, her defense was nowhere near as perfect, and strikes caught her just enough to whittle her aura down. Any time she'd swing for him, he'd only leap back, shoot himself forward and redouble his efforts. Mercury leapt forward with an axe kick powerful enough to dent the car it took a Paladin to harm. He was open! Ruby twirled, brought her scythe screaming towards Mercury's head, and bolted around him in a flurry of rose petals. She appeared behind him, poised to catch him completely off-guard.

He wasn't there.

"Too slow!" His knee flew into her stomach from beside her, the gunshot-assisted force only doubling the pain that sent her flying. The world became little more than a sickening whirl before she managed to recover three cars down. Ruby's aura flickered pulsated red from the damage. Her head throbbed and stomach ached. Ruby folded Crescent Rose back to its rifle form, hoping to at least put the distance to her advantage.

She looked up just in time to see Mercury flipping towards her. Ruby barely brought her gun up in time to block him and the force of both his boots striking, let alone the blast that followed, was enough to send her tumbling down another car. Mercury was on a class of his own. Even toying around, he was beating her worse than Adam or Pyrrha ever had.

There was a brief lull in the fighting. He'd stopped his assault. Ruby pushed herself up to her knees and looked down at the car ahead.

He was on his Scroll.

In the middle of a fight, in the middle of what could be the worst attack on Vale _ever,_ Mercury was on his _Scroll_ , strolling across the cars towards her like nothing was wrong. It was at that exact moment that Ruby realized that Mercury wasn't lying: he genuinely didn't care about this. He didn't care about Vale. He didn't care about the White Fang. He didn't care about who would die. He didn't care about where he was. What he was doing. Anything except for maybe money and Cinder.

He was genuinely, absolutely evil.

Ruby loaded a gravity Dust magazine, the most expensive one she had. As she rose up, she grew all too aware of the ruby-red glow surrounding her scythe.

She didn't care.

* * *

"Yeah. Yeah, I know. It's a problem, but we've got it covered," Mercury tried to explain to Cinder. He swore he could feel the heat even through his Scroll. He could see the brat starting to get up out of the corner of his eye, but, he made nothing of it: that kid had a long way to go before she'd be a threat. She was too soft.

Cinder sighed, her voice hazy and crackling even with their network purpose-made for this. _"Fine. If Merlot has already escaped and the train is as close as you believe, get out as soon as possible. If you can at least get back to Vale, you can establish a stronger alibi."_

"Sounds like a plan. I was getting tired of this joint, anyway." In the distance, the girl had finally gotten to her feet. She looked angry, like a tough puppy whose food got taken from it. "Uh-oh, Lil Red's mad. I'll call you—" Mercury leaned back just in time to watch the scythe go flying past where his head was. He spun and kicked in return, but, the moment his foot made contact, she vanished.

He spun around and jumped back. Crescent Rose's tip scraped against the roof, and Mercury slammed his boot down onto the side of its blade. Another feint to attack him from behind? Typical. Mercury pressed down harder, keeping her from dragging it away. "Didn't your mother ever tell you it's rude to interrupt someone when they're on their Scroll?" He snapped his Scroll shut. The widening of her eyes and flare of anger and shock across her expression was a surprise, but a pleasant one. Ooh, mommy issues? Save that one for later.

Mercury let go of her just as Ruby fired Crescent Rose to tear it from his grip. He had to admit, it was fun toying around with her in a sadistic kind of way, but, he had to make this quick. Cinder gave her orders.

When Ruby cried out and shot off towards him in what she must've thought was another clever feint, Mercury rolled his eyes and waited until she swung to grab Crescent Rose by the blade. The girl was tough, but not enough to budge him.

It was here, as he tried to drag her into a vicious kick, that Mercury noticed two problems. The first: his hand was hurting. Mercury was no stranger to pain, which let him hold on with ease, but there was no denying that it hurt like a _bitch._ He hadn't taken so much as a scratch, but, this much pain was getting through his aura?

The second problem kept him from focusing on it: Ruby Rose disappeared. He had a solid grip on her weapon, yet his hand clenched around nothing. She didn't shoot. She didn't pull away. She and her weapon just... disappeared into a storm of rose petals that blew past him. Mercury grimaced and swept the petals from his face. Then, he noticed the scythe blade coiling around his midsection.

Ah.

She'd moved _through_ him.

This, Mercury thought, wasn't going to be a good day.

* * *

Ruby pulled. She gathered her aura, her Semblance, her frustration and her anger and _pulled._ The villain tried to keep himself standing, so she pulled the trigger. When she felt the weight behind her crumple and heard Mercury cursing, Ruby did what she did best: run.

Firing faster and faster, she dragged Mercury across the train, dashing towards its end and feeling her glowing blade sink just a little deeper with each shot. Mercury's shouts of agitation and protest began to grow more panicked, no doubt from the end of the train coming closer and closer, and realizing Crescent Rose was slipping through his aura without breaking it. Ruby knew this was wrong, what being able to use 'aura penetration' so freely implied, but, he needed to be stopped. He was a villain. The enemy. The sooner he was gone, the sooner she could save people.

It was what she had to do.

She didn't realize she was out of ammunition until the third click of her empty gun. Feeling Mercury begin to struggle, she shouted, twisted and slammed him down against the roof. Both screeched to a halt near the very end of the cart. Mercury bounced off of the roof and tried to flip back onto his feet only to grunt and fall to one knee, panting and clutching his stomach. A deep wound traced its way across his now-torn jacket, staining it crimson even as his aura stitched it back together.

Ruby wanted to say that she was strong. She wanted to say that she was standing proud over the vile foe, but, that just wasn't the case: she was hunched over like Mercury, sucking in great gulps of the stagnant air as if it were the first of her life. She'd channeled everything she had left into that sprint, and she didn't have that much to give in the first place. Still, Ruby managed to force herself upright.

"Had enough?!" she shouted and began stalking forward. Her aura flickered and cracked away around her.

Mercury looked up and, for a moment, Ruby thought she saw respect in his eyes. He smirked. "I'm... I'm just gettin' started." For a moment, fear gripped Ruby's heart: was he really able to keep fighting? Then, she noticed it: when she stepped forward, Mercury took a shaky step back. He was bluffing. Caught up in that brief wind of confidence, Ruby never noticed Mercury glancing over his shoulder.

The hordes of Grimm behind them had gathered to the point where it was like a black miasma racing for the train, visible only as embers and flashes of sea-green shifting in the dark, heard only as the cries of the damned. Ruby's eyes widened: Mercury was getting too close to the edge. Maybe it was seeing him weak, maybe it was just not having the aura to go on, but, just like that, that instinctual light inside her simple soul banished all the darkness that threatened to claim her thoughts.

"Wait!" She called out and jogged forward. A mistake. Mercury stumbled backwards, and his foot finally stepped on nothing but air. Ruby threw the last bit of her strength into a last rush, but, Mercury had already fallen from the edge of the train. She reached out in a last, desperate attempt to catch him. Ruby thought she saw Mercury reach back.

But it was too late, and he was gone into the black mist.

* * *

Almond had wasted no time in his assault, bringing his chainsaw down with both hands with power and fury Adam hadn't seen before. His former lieutenant had always surpassed him in sheer strength, yes, but, they were at least _comparable_ when he had left. Yet, every time he brought Wilt up, it was slammed back down by Almond, and every parry was getting harder to make.

It was after one of those parries that Adam flipped Blush up and fired at his mask. Almond didn't budge. With a swat of his chainsaw, he sent Adam stumbling back. Adam narrowed his eyes: the streaks of crimson traveling to his mask with each breath were more and more clear. He didn't even look winded, even after so much combat.

"You found your Semblance," he realized.

Almond rumbled with a chuckle. "It took you so long to notice? It's good to know you thought I was truly was so strong."

Adam snorted. "Strong enough to know that there's no reason you should still be working with Cinder."

His humor faded. "With her, we at least have options. We can survive and prosper, more than you can give us from Beacon!" He roared and with speed he would've expected from Ruby or Weiss, he leaped at Adam. Caught off-guard, he took the full brunt of the chainsaw to the side and shouted out in pain. Slammed into a stack of crates from the force, the contact with the chainsaw was brief, but, it was enough to gouge out a heavy chunk of his aura in a single blow.

Instinct brought his sword from his sheath, just in time to block another strike. Sparks flew from the point of contact. Adam's aura flared up in a desperate attempt to hold Almond off. The constant jolt and vibration running through his arm from the chainsaw bouncing and rattling off of his sword sent pain through his muscles. That blasted rumble of Almond's weapon wasn't making it any easier to think, either. The bins he was forced up against began to crack from the strain. Thunder rang in his ears, yet he couldn't place the source.

He could never win a contest of pure strength with his former lieutenant, not like this. He felt the Dust magazines burning a hole in his pocket, but ignored it: he wouldn't stoop that low. Adam's eyes darted around the car before strange flickers of black and red brought his attention beside him. The flickers were nowhere to be seen, but, what _was_ there was the crate that Almond had torn through trying to kill Weiss. It was trickling out prismatic streams of powder.

Now, _that_ Dust, Adam thought, he could bring himself to use. Wriggling out just enough to spin out of the way of Almond's strike, Adam rolled beside the Dust crates and watched as Almond—who had only damaged the crate he stood beside attacking Weiss—cleanly ripped through the ones Adam was just against. One step brought Almond back in range, and with a spin, he whipped his saw at Adam, who ducked beneath it. Finally, he took the offensive, his blade only a flash as it slashed against Almond's blade and armor alike time and time again.

"Enough games!" Almond deflected the incoming blows, one by one. "I know you're stronger than that!" He pressed forward until Adam had his back up to the crate Weiss was once forced against. Once more, he was left with Wilt as the only thing between him and Almond's chainsaw.

Adam smirked. "What can I say? You were always the muscle." Adam leaped to the side in a blur. "I was the brain." The momentum brought Almond's saw right into the crate full of volatile Dust. The resulting explosion sent him skidding to the door and filled the train car with smoke that quickly flooded out of the gaping hole left in the side of it. Almond was left against the opposite wall, smoke still coiling off of him and some of his armor plates missing off of his arms. Half of his mask had broken away. The roar of the chainsaw had finally stopped.

"Tell me, Almond: you never worked with humans before, let alone these criminals and cretins. What brought you so low? What does she have over you!" Almond budged at Adam's words. Slowly, he began to rise, yet, did not answer. "Tell me, Edward!" Adam shouted. "Why are you working with Cinder!"

The air tasted of blood. Almond stirred.

"You know why. She returned. She struck down your men and demanded we fold. Assist her, or die, and we couldn't fight." His chainsaw hung lazily in one arm. Every breath drew in that crimson mist, now, leaving a constant haze around him, like blood in water. "And I had no choice but to let that human have her way _**because you abandoned us!"**_ And then Almond was in front of him, having cut the distance in only a single step. Adam brought Wilt halfway out of its sheath to block, but was still launched out of the hole he'd created.

The train cars whipped past Adam as he was flung towards the wall of the tunnel, but, a pulse of aura strengthening his legs let him leap back on top of it. Adam dropped to one knee, panting. In the middle of a frantic battle, watching Ruby and Penny try and battle their way through Paladins so far up, was not the most calm place to catch his breath, but he'd manage.

His aura flickered, but remained steady. By his estimates, he had maybe only half of it left. Damnit! He was running out of options. He couldn't keep up a battle of attrition like this: not while Almond's Semblance was making him so much more powerful. He could use his own Semblance, of course, but...

Adam clicked open his blade. A red glow tried to wrap around it, yet faltered each time. He brushed a hand through his hair and scowled at his own weakness: he couldn't even gather the killing intent against his former comrade to bring his aura penetration to bear. Adam didn't know if he'd be able to bring his Semblance's full power against him, either, and, at this rate, he wasn't sure if he'd be able to block enough of Almond's blows to gather this much power, again. The Schnee Dust magazine was not an option—

His thoughts were abruptly cut off by the shrieking of metal. Adam instinctively rolled to the side, just in time to see Captain Almond's saw slice through the roof, right where he was once standing. Adam kept his hand on his hilt, slowly turning to keep as much in his sight as possible. He whirled as the saw tore through a piece of the roof behind him. Then, another slash tore the hatch away.

"You can't run again!" The ground beneath him exploded into shrapnel as Almond came whirling out from below like the metal was little more than paper. Adam fell onto his back atop the next car, and Almond was in front of him already. He didn't have the time to roll to his feet before the chainsaw was flying down towards his head again.

"You can't abandon the White Fang!" Adam raised Wilt up and grunted from the impact. "You can't abandon me!" Another strike drove the air from his lungs even when blocked. "You can't _kill_ me!" His aura flared from the strain of the third attack. " _I_ raised you after Altebrucke! _I_ brought you into the White Fang! _I_ made you _who! You! Are!_ " Almond's blows were not aimed: with a single hand, he just brought his chainsaw down upon Adam's blade again and again. Steel groaned beneath them both.

"I _will_ lead the faunus again," Adam hissed under the rain of blows. "We _both_ can, Almond!" Almond raised his saw, but, it did not come back down. Adam took a moment to catch his breath. "We were going too far! We forgot our power came from our strength, not our fear. We can change that, Almond: we can still have our revolution, but by carving our own way! By ourselves!" He slowly rose to his feet, arms trembling and numb as he sheathed Wilt. Slowly, Almond lowered his saw. Every labored breath brought more of that crimson mist to him, now like ribbons trailing from the combat further ahead to his maw like blood in water.

"Without Torchwick. Without Cinder." He offered his hand out to Almond. "Join me. It won't be the same, I'll admit that, but we will give the faunus their time in the light. Those two _will_ suffer for what they've done to us." Adam took a wary step forward. _"Trust me."_

Captain Almond's shoulders began to slump, his head turned down and the single, hazel eye visible through his broken mask focusing on the dented roof. Suddenly, he shouted in frustration and gripped at his mask, curling inwards on himself. Adam, at first, thought it was out of a conflicted mind and prepared to crush those last threads of resistance, but, his eyes soon found the true cause: the streams of red that had never faded. No, they only pulsed brighter, and he could see the thin, misty tendrils connecting to those in the battle ahead brightening each time someone was struck. Almond growled and thrashed in place, aura flaring and coiling around him.

By the time Adam had realized it, it was too late: Almond's Semblance was too immature. It was going out of control. The captain went slack, and Adam's instincts roared at him to run. He turned his gaze onto Adam, his eye little more than a black orb and the edge of an inhuman, jagged, tooth-filled scowl visible through his cracked mask.

 _ **"Liar."**_ Adam was slammed through the weakened ceiling before he could even think.

* * *

Two. Yang had managed to land _two_ solid hits on Neo. In return, that cheating little midget had been taking her apart, piece by little piece. Yang couldn't count the number of hits she'd taken, but, what she did know what she wasn't even at half-empty, yet: Neo had just been that intent on making this as agitating and painful as possible. She forced Neo to start using her Semblance, sure, but that didn't mean a damn thing when _she couldn't use her own!_

A solid swing at Neo's midsection left the air shattering once more, and Yang had to resist not screaming in pure rage as she was kicked into another cart and sent skidding across the floor on her back. Neo was too fast. It was easier trying to catch Ruby when she was hyped up on sugar. She was way better against fighters of _her_ style: brute force! Strength! Something she could get hit by and, y'know, _actually use her Semblance on._

A black blur blasted _through_ the ceiling and smashed into the floor next to her hard enough to crack it. Captain Almond loomed above and erupted into vicious, jeering laughter. Neo skipped through the door, spinning her parasol in one hand.

Yang stared up at the ceiling, still on her back. "Hey, Adam?"

Adam groaned from beside her.

"Switch?"

"... Switch."


	51. V2: No Brakes

**No Brakes  
**

* * *

Steel clashed and rang out in the dark driver's cab of the train as Weiss and Torchwick dueled. It, just like the sounds of warfare growing nearer, was nothing more than the softest rumble to Weiss: she focused entirely on the opponent in front of her. A single step to the left to avoid his swing. A counter aimed at his shoulder. Feint a second strike to draw him forward. Parry the response. Riposte... Weiss cursed herself as Torchwick dipped away: she was a half-second too late. It was one of many frustrations that were gnawing away at her as they fought. It was not that they were stuck in a stalemate that bothered her.

It was that this criminal had the gall to 'fence' with her using his cane! A mockery of the style and, through some miracle, he was managing to hold his own!

Weiss let that anger fuel and quicken her blows, each coming faster until Torchwick was on the defensive. Stepping back and twirling his cane to force her away, Torchwick jolted as he bumped into the control panels. Weiss allowed herself a smirk as she lunged.

Torchwick smirked back. His cane hooked around her blade. With a sharp yank, he stepped aside and let Weiss' own momentum do the work for her, throwing her forward. Caring nothing at all for honor, he grabbed the back of her head and slammed it into the controls before jumping back and whirling his cane above. Infuriated and with her head throbbing, Weiss twirled and brought up a shield of cyan energy to deflect Torchwick's incoming blow. Torchwick stumbled backwards, giving Weiss all the time she needed to flick Myrtenaster's cylinder to red and aim it at her foe.

"Ah-ah-ah!" Torchwick held his hands up. "Careful, Ice Queen, unless you want to blow us _both_ to bits..." Weiss narrowed her eyes: he stood in front of familiar, Schnee-marked crates. With a huff, she flicked her rapier towards the ground, instead, blinding and forcing the crime lord further against the crates. Torchwick barely had the time to whip away the flames before a blow to the chest knocked the wind out of him. Even when cornered, however, his constant flourishes and swings at legs and head both kept Weiss away from a finishing blow.

At least he'd stopped mocking the way of fencing.

Torchwick suddenly fired down at her feet, forcing Weiss to leap back onto a glyph. He smirked and charged forward to strike her from the air. He never saw the glyph form at his side until Weiss had already sprung to it. Now, it was his turn for his momentum to be his downfall, leaving him wide open to Weiss and her blazing, red Dust-charged weapon. Her eyes briefly fell upon his left—no doubt prosthetic—leg. It'd be all too easy to end the fight right there: even if it didn't destroy it entirely, lack of experience would at least unbalance Torchwick enough for a pathetically easy coup de grace.

But, she wasn't like him. She wouldn't stoop to his level. When she shot forward, it was his right that she jammed Myrtenaster into, leaving him shouting out in pain and stumbling into the console. A lucky swing—at least that was what she told herself—caught Weiss' cheek hard enough to force her away.

His white bowler hat drooping over his eye, Torchwick growled and pushed himself back up to his feet. "Why, you worthless little brat!" He raised his cane to lash out at her, only to just jerk forward and grunt. He looked back to find the end of his cane held in place by a spinning, black glyph. Torchwick turned to his other side just in time to see his arm get frozen to the console in a rush of Dust. He glared at Weiss, who only pleasantly smirked back and strolled closer, her rapier raised and pointed at him.

"It's over, Torchwick. Tell me just how to stop this train and the law _may_ take it easier on you."

The criminal boss looked more aggravated about his hat falling off. "You _really_ need to work on your negotiations." He slumped down against the console. "Just what do I have to gain from listening to you?"

Weiss huffed. "The mercy of Vale's justice system and potential imprisonment instead of the 'mercy' of a pleasant executioner, of course."

"Uh-huh. Yeah. Counter-offer—" His left knee suddenly exploded into light, and Weiss's head snapped back from a sudden impact. Stumbling back with her aura flickering and a sharp stinging across her face, it took a second for her to realize what had just happened: he'd just shot her with his mechanical leg. Her eyes snapped back to Torchwick as he broke the ice and her glyph failed from lack of concentration. The barrel of a short gun was visible through the hole in his pants just at his knee. A gun. In his prosthetic. That she refused to target. He'd abuse even the small kindness of her not targeting his weakness?!

Her face red with indignant rage and her lips twisted into a scowl, Weiss spun her cylinder to yellow Dust as Torchwick lunged forward. She flooded her rapier with her aura, and ducked off to the side before Torchwick could even blink. Channeling the quickening power of electric Dust, she shot past Torchwick time and time again, raking her rapier across his aura and only stopping to unleash a flurry of lightning-fast blows. No matter just how fast Torchwick was, he couldn't stop _all_ of them from cutting through his defense. Once more, she parried a futile attempt to attack her but, now, her riposte was a fully-charged, electrified stab.

Right into his metal leg.

Torchwick's scream was so shrill it almost hurt her ears. She was so wrapped up in anger at his dishonor, however, that she only pressed on, watching the criminal's aura flare and flicker from the constant punishment. Soon, his only choice would be surrender or be knocked out. He'd have no choice but to—

Torchwick grabbed the blade.

Gritting his teeth through the pain, he managed to forced Weiss' rapier away from his knee. Weiss tried to yank her blade back yet, to her increasing surprise, Torchwick kept holding on. She tried to amp up the electric Dust's power and pressed the trigger down flat, but, if anything, the lightning _waned._

Finally, she gathered the strength to pull her weapon back and stepped away, rapier raised flush to her. Torchwick twitched as he steadied himself. Weiss didn't like where this was going. She'd just need to finish this on the spot! Weiss created glyph after glyph around her foe and channeled her aura into not just the Dust, but her Semblance. She inhaled and focused on dilating time itself around her.

Nothing happened.

Weiss' eyes widened as she looked at the myriad of Dust chambers. Had she used everything up already? No, she could still see the electric Dust inside, but it was... desaturated. Dull. Almost completely gray.

"That was a nice little trick you pulled, last time we fought." Weiss looked up to find Torchwick with a pulsating aura of yellow around him. "Mind if I... _borrow_ it?" He was gone in a flash.

The cane slamming into her ribs was the first strike of many.

* * *

"Cover me!" Yang shouted.

"On it! Adam rolled to his feet first with his blade drawn as Almond dropped from the hole in the ceiling. He spun Blush in his hand, aimed and threw his Semblance into a single shot that painted the train red and launched Almond into the cart ahead as little more than a silhouette. It wouldn't be enough to put him down, but, hopefully, it'd keep him stunned. An explosion rippled behind him and Yang rushed forward in pursuit. Now, then, that just left him and...

Adam spun on instinct and struck the pointed tip of a parasol away. Neo was already back at arm's reach by the time he'd fully turned. Adam twirled Wilt in his hands, staring down his substantially shorter foe. Neo copied him with her parasol, cocked her head to one side and blinked, eyes changing from pink to brown at random.

He sheathed his blade, and the two circled one another, watching for any sign of weakness. He drummed his fingers on Wilt's hilt. Neo laid her parasol on her shoulder. Adam paused and clicked open his blade. Neo watched him for a moment longer, then smirked and beckoned him forward. With a smirk of his own, Adam gladly obliged and drew his blade in an instant.

The image of Neo shattered into pieces leaving empty space behind, yet, Adam was not fooled: he whipped around and swept his blade low to block Neo's parasol coming in from behind him, the hook only a couple of inches away from his leg. He aimed Blush, but Neo snapped a kick up into his wrist fast enough to send his shot wide. Spinning his blade to force Neo away, Adam leaped back and sheathed his blade once more. The two looked over one another again, appraising. Judging. Deciding on their next move.

Neo's eyes flicked towards the door where Yang and Almond escaped. Her mind was elsewhere. On another opponent.

Adam's eyes followed hers. Normally, he'd have been more than able to take advantage of even that small glance. However, he could not judge. His mind was on how to conquer his other opponent, as well.

Adam drew his blade, and their second round commenced.

* * *

Yang ran through a last door to find the hulking White Fang leader kneeling and shaking wilted petals off of him. The armor she'd once seen on him in the rally was almost completely gone. He turned his half-broken mask in her direction.

"Oh, no you don't!" She fired behind herself to go rocketing forward. "Stay _down!_ " She brought her hand down with all the force she could and, with a roar that shook the car, Almond swung his arm up and took every pound of it right into his hand. Steel groaned, crates were blasted back and crimson aura burst from the resulting shockwave, filling the air with the taste of iron. Yang fired her gauntlets again and flipped herself over the frenzied leader, narrowly avoiding a wild swing of his chainsaw in the process.

She could tell already that this man was the opposite of Neopolitan. Like the Junior to Neo's Malachite Twins. In other words, a _way_ better match for her. Yang smirked and ejected her shells before throwing in far more brightly-colored Dust shells. The good stuff.

"Come on, why don't you take off the mask! Look me in the eye while we're fightin'!" She taunted him. Almond cocked his head to one side, blinking without understanding, one, utterly black eye focused on her. Then, he grinned and reached his hand up to the remains of his mask. It cracked as he pulled it away, crumbling in his crushing grip as if it were made from plaster.

Yang could now fully see his black, frantic eyes and the rows of sharp, jagged teeth in his maw. A maw that, as Almond grinned wider and let the glowing mist flow freely from it, was spreading far and away beyond what any man's should have.

"... Uh, on second thought, can you just kinda... paste that back on?" With another roar, Almond leaped at Yang and forced her to roll out of the way of a swing that swept through the ground like a knife through hot butter. She ducked and weaved around slash after slash, peppering him with gouts of flame and pellets from her gauntlets all the while. He barely even budged. Alright, then, a tough guy! Yang brought up her gauntlet to block one of his one-handed blows, hoping to leave him open enough to strike at his gut.

As she was instead slammed into the ground from Almond's saw, Yang realized that she'd grossly miscalculated his strength. She rolled out of the way of his incoming stab and put her own strength on display, hurling one of the heavy crates at Almond and firing her gauntlets to send her into a tight spin towards him. Almond could cleave through it with ease, but, that didn't stop the two halves from striking him and forcing him back, nor did it stop Yang's spinning kick slamming into his head.

She didn't need to beat him, Yang thought as she landed and brought her arms up to block a desperate swing that still threw her back a couple feet. She just needed to last long enough to get herself charged up. Yang was caught between wanting to grimace and grin both as Almond raced through her incendiary rounds to knee her in the stomach and knock her back towards Neo and Adam. She hissed in pain and spat as she rose back to her feet, eyes blazing red and aura flickering gold.

"Come on, asshole! I've fought Ursas stronger than you!" A inhuman bellow befitting of said Ursa was the reply from the cart beyond.

At least it wouldn't take too much longer, now!

* * *

The tip of Neo's parasol sliced past Adam's faltering aura and into his cheek, leaving behind a trail of red that remained even after his aura patched it together. First blood. Adam scowled and his concentration returned to the fight at hand, blade little more than a crimson line of light as it swept and lashed out at Neo. Every blow was dodged with speed and grace that rivaled—no, _exceeded_ —his own. Adam did not believe she was an amateur, but, even so, it was clear she was better than he predicted.

Her eyes turned a gleaming pink upon noticing the first mark left behind, carrying with them a predatory glow like that of a shark to blood in the water. Blood in the water...

As his thoughts drifted away to Almond once more, his body moved on autopilot, avoiding a swing of Neo's parasol and parrying the next before sweeping his foot through what became yet another field of illusory, shattered glass. Adam spun and drew his sword only enough to block the expected counterattack from behind. He was going to have to kill Edward Almond at this rate. His stomach churned at the thought, but, with him so frenzied, it was clear it was the only way out.

He abruptly bolted back from Neo and slashed just in front of the door Yang was beyond. The _true_ Neo flipped out of the fragments of empty air left in Wilt's wake nary a step away from the door, and the illusory copy she left behind crumbled behind them both.

Adam tutted. "I am your opponent, now, not her." He smirked and spun Wilt before sheathing it and beckoning Neo forward. She narrowed her now-brown eyes at him. He took that as a victory.

He was stalling, he knew that. Waiting for Yang to finish with her scheme. Waiting for his turn. Waiting for the time where he would have to finish what he had started with his former lieutenant. The train rumbled behind him, and he could faintly hear Yang cursing, followed by the muffled and increasingly loud shout of: _"Switchswitchswitch!"_

And that time had come quicker than he'd wanted it to.

Adam tightened the grip on his weapon and readied himself for Neo's attack. She stalked forward, a prismatic, reflective sheen building on her parasol. "But, fine, I am a benevolent opponent. You want her? Have her!" He ducked as the door barely opened fast enough to allow Yang, hair aflame and eyes blazing-red to come rocketing out.

Adam and Yang both mentally saved Neo's surprised gasp and horrified expression. A split-second later, Yang's fist wiped it off of Neo's face with an explosive punch that unleashed nothing short of purest, blazing sunlight and a deafening cacophony inside the train cart. When the light and sound faded, the door at the opposite end of the car twitched and sparked with a gaping hole in it. Through it, similar damage could be seen in the car beyond that.

Yang popped her neck, aura spotty and flickering, yet held together by the same flames that now danced across her blonde hair. Her eyes held a visible glow to them, now, as she stalked forward. She turned her gaze over her shoulder, watching Adam as he stared into the car ahead, waiting for Almond. "I'll finish her. You got the big guy?"

"... His semblance. It's being fueled by others being wounded. Call Ruby and make sure she falls back when Neo is finished."

Yang snorted. "Takin' that as a yes, then. Good luck!" She sprinted off, tearing through any door that did not rise for her. She didn't have time to waste even another second of her Semblance.

Finally, Adam was alone, if only for a few moments. His aura quivered and waned, held together after the constant punishment more from willpower than endurance. How many more strikes could he take? One? Two? He couldn't afford to play around, nor could he afford to busy himself with the past. Adam drew Wilt as he jumped into the next car. Almond would have to fall now, if not to save himself, then to stop his Semblance from affecting him even after this skirmish. He ejected Blush's magazine and fired its one shot left into the ceiling.

"Come, Edward! Let's put an end to this!"

The guttural growl of Almond and saw both rumbled from deeper within. Crimson mist seeped out from beneath the door before it even opened. Almond stepped out, hunched over and snarling with rows of teeth visible. Standing on the other end of the car, Adam stabbed Wilt into the ground and jammed a new magazine into Blush.

One emblazoned with the Schnee insignia.

* * *

Ruby threw aside yet another magazine and reached for her bandolier. Two left. Stuck in the back supporting Penny as she fought off more than ten White Fang at a time, she sighed in frustration. The waves felt endless! They really must've been planning a massive attack for them to have this many people onboard. She racked the next shot and aimed. She peered back over her scope and blinked.

Wait, there didn't look like there were that many left, at all! She rose up to her feet and squinted down at their foes. Were they finally running out?

She noticed the few remaining backing off and ducking behind crates having been dragged and thrown up to the ceiling to serve as cover. Ruby squealed and dived to the side as a Paladin turned its attention onto her, riddling the train car with heavy slugs. Yet, it didn't advance. Ruby's eyes widened as she realized that they weren't trying to kill them anymore, they were trying to _stall_ them.

"Penny! How close to Vale are we!"

Penny ducked under a wild swing and struck him from the train with a sweep of her blades. "I cannot ascertain our exact position at this moment." Her swords launched out and hooked into one of the many crates before dragging it to her. Simple cover, but, cover nonetheless. "But..." She narrowed her eyes in thought, searching through her maps knowledge of the surrounding area.

"I sense that we will be reaching the barricade in six minutes. If my calculations are correct, we're already within Vale limits, Ruby!"

Ruby gripped her scythe tighter. So, that was why they were suddenly getting defensive: they were already in the final stretch! They still had so many mechs ahead, too: there was no way that they could get to the front of the train by themselves.

It was all up to Weiss, now...

* * *

Weiss' aura cracked as Torchwick, glowing gold, blitzed past and struck her with his cane once more, sending her stumbling back.

"How?!" She shouted as she rolled out of the way of an explosive round and had to block a trio of strikes from Torchwick before it even struck the wall behind her.

Torchwick swept her legs out from under her. His cane cannon was already aimed at her by the time she hit the ground. "C'mon, Ice Queen, do I gotta spell it out? You go to Beacon! I thought you'd understand a Semblance when you saw one!" Ugh, of course the thief's Semblance would be _stealing_ something. Weiss snorted and flipped Myrtenaster up before unleashing a torrent of fire at his face while he was so focused on her own. He easily leaned back, but, his eyes tracked the flames.

Just what Weiss was waiting for. She shoved Torchwick's cane aside before striking his metal leg once more and bringing him to his knees. Growing more used to the extreme speed from his stolen haste, Weiss rolled to her feet and stabbed out just as Torchwick swung Melodic Cudgel towards her.

Her rapier's flaming tip pierced the barrel just as Torchwick fired, and the explosion turned world white. Weiss' ears rung and she stepped back coughing from the black smog and embers the filled the air. Her left hand was empty and numb from her rapier being ripped from her grip. Blood dripped from between her fingers: her aura had collapsed almost entirely. As the smoke cleared, however, Weiss saw Torchwick hacking and stumbling away. More importantly, she saw that he was disarmed as well. Unlike her, however, Torchwick's aura was breaking, but still there.

She saw Torchwick's cane, burnt but whole, laying near the door to the cab behind him. Weiss glanced over her shoulder. Myrtenaster laid wedged against the console behind her. She looked up, and their eyes met.

Weiss ignored how the world kept turning, stood tall and nodded to Torchwick. It was only fair that they retrieve their weapons. Torchwick nodded back, glow fading. Weiss turned away.

Torchwick punched her in the face.

"Have you no shame at _all?!_ " Weiss screamed in rage as she narrowly ducked under his second swing.

"The world isn't fair, Ice Queen!" He caught her in the stomach, driving the wind from her. "I would've thought a Schnee knew that best!" She leaned back to avoid an uppercut. "And you're way too young for this if you think _I'm_ gonna play fair!" He put all the aura he could into a finishing hook, but Weiss twirled around his swing and threw him over her shoulder. She might not have had her aura supporting her, but, she wasn't a slouch in hand-to-hand.

Both took a second to catch their breath. Weiss looked past Torchwick to find Myretenaster behind him, now. The crime lord smirked. He'd caught on. Torchwick scrambled backwards for Weiss' rapier. In a panic, Weiss checked behind her. Torchwick's cane was in arm's reach. She reached for the cane.

Torchwick swung the elegant rapier towards her.

Weiss aimed the simple cane gun and, as Torchwick realized he hadn't the slightest clue on how to use Weiss' weapon, simplicity won out. The flare slammed into Torchwick's chest, the explosion slamming him against the console and leaving his aura utterly vanquished. He slumped to the ground, groaning. Weiss kept the cane aimed at him, taking in great, gasping breaths.

The fight was over. She'd won. Her legs trembled, the world turned and she nearly passed out before slamming Torchwick's cane into the ground to steady herself. No! No more! She'd won this battle on her own, and she wasn't going to just drop afterwards like she had before. She was going to stick this through and prove herself strong! Weiss hobbled towards the controls, willpower defeating exhaustion.

"Do you really think this is gonna be enough to make you a big hero?" Torchwick grumbled from where he laid. "That people are just going to forget whose daughter you are? Whose family's screwing up the world?" Weiss glared down at him, a scowl growing on her face. "How much of that Schnee depravity did you know about and ignore before you got here? Does your little White Fang buddy know? How about innocent little Red?" He chuckled dryly and coughed. "You can run away from home all you want, little girl, but you can't outrun your name."

Frustration finally built to a peak, and Weiss let the cane slide in her grip until she held it by the end of its shaft. Then, she turned and cracked the handle into his jaw. Torchwick fell limp. Panting, sweating and alone with only her thoughts and the sound of the rumbling train, Weiss threw Torchwick's weapon back at him, grabbed Myrtenaster and leaned over the console. She'd seen and rode around in these trains before, if she remembered right, the brakes should be... here!

Weiss reached for the lever, only to find a piece of metal haphazardly riveted over the slot where it should be.

The train had no brakes.

"... Oh, wonderful..."


	52. V2: 6:06

**6:06**

* * *

 **A/N: Anniversary bonus chapter!  
**

* * *

 _"We have a problem!"_ Weiss' voice crackled to life on Adam's Scroll, quality low even with this short a distance. Adam could barely hear it over the sound of Almond's chainsaw. Firing Blush as he drew Wilt, he unleashed a wave of flames that forced Almond away from him. A second fire Dust-infused shot completely bowled him over.

"Busy!" Similar affirmations from RWAY rung out as Adam flipped over Almond with his hand on his blade, but, it was too late: his foe had recovered. One swing of his chainsaw launched him through the roof.

 _"The White Fang wasn't trying to just defend the train!"_ He rolled to his feet atop a cart and fired Wilt forward just as Almond jumped from the hatch roaring. Adam grimaced as he rushed forward to grab his blade: this shot didn't carry Dust behind it. Sure enough, he swung, and the blade harmlessly bounced off of his chainsaw. He spun around the return strike and peppered Almond's back with slashes faster than sight.

" _They were trying to stall for time!"_ Adam flipped over Almond's saw when he whipped around and, with the next shell-infused strike, Adam swept his blade at his legs and froze them to the ground. The elements must have been separated by a non-Dust shot. Something to keep in mind. _"They didn't want us to find out there aren't any brakes!"_ Adam paused.

"Repeat that!" Surely, he'd heard wrong. Almond snarled and broke one of his legs free. A shot to it returned it to the icy embrace and earned a roar of frustration from his frenzied partner.

 _"We can't stop the train! Not... not conventionally, anyways."_ The alternative was left unsaid: any other way to derail the metal monstrosity was bound to be dangerous, dirty, and would no doubt leave them trapped underground. Thoughts frayed, he could barely focus on the battle ahead when he heard the sound of ice shattering again. What came next in the magazine? Energy? Gravity?

 _"Well, then, what's the plan?"_ Adam heard Ruby ask. He stumbled away from the first swing, and blocking the second with his sheathed blade nearly ripped his weapon from his hand altogether. The momentum forced him to a crouch, and he flipped over Almond's head, letting the train do the work of making distance. Adam flipped Blush up and started firing, sending bullets and bolts of electricity flying into the captain. It was to no avail: he stormed through all of it and raised his chainsaw high.

He forced out the sound of conversation, took aim, and fired at Almond's weapon just as he reached him. A gravity-laced bullet charged with Adam's aura slammed into Almond's chainsaw. Combined with the momentum of his one-handed swings, it sent the chainsaw whipping across the train until it embedded itself into a far off car and fell silent. Almond took one look back, then rushed Adam without it.

* * *

 _"Don't ask_ me _, you dolt! I thought you were the leader!"_ Yang plowed her fist past Neo's parasol with ease and struck her face. Two blows had already left her aura crackling. Neo glared up with pink eyes, but let Yang remain on the defensive. Yang's speed had not changed, meanwhile, it was like Neo had sped up, trying to let Yang tire herself out by weaving around each glowing swing. She'd just learned the hard way what would happen if she tried to block.

 _"Well, I, uh... hold on! Let me think!"_ A blast of fiery buckshot perforated and scorched half of the car, but left Neo shattering once more. Yang felt the hook of her umbrella swing around and yank harshly at her neck. She didn't budge. Before Neo could slither away from her again, Yang grabbed her parasol, reached back and threw Neo over by her arm. The short girl landed on her back with a crash that echoed through the car. Still holding onto her arm, Yang lifted her leg up to stomp on Neo, ready to twist until either she submitted or her arm did.

Neo focused, and vanished in a blur of white light just as her foot came crashing down. Yang turned as Neo dropped from the air and painfully bounced off of the ground again behind her. Neo blinked as she rose, her eyes pink and white, aura beginning to fade. They became pink once more as she shot another glare at Yang.

Yang cracked her knuckles, smirked, and walked forward. It was over for the little pest.

* * *

 _"We'll stop it right before it hits the barrier!"_ Without his chainsaw, Almond was still a threat, but nowhere near where he was before. His swings were quick and aura-empowered, but clumsy. Adam ducked under a hook and raked his sword across his chest. A step away from Almond's uppercut and he was firing the last gravity shot into his head. Almond finally was forced to take a step back, reeling. Adam gave him no time to recover, firing Wilt into his knee, flashing over to grab it and bringing it across his leg as he passed. He spun Wilt, twirled and slashed the back of his knee to finish the job and bring Almond down.

 _"We will be reaching the barrier in three minutes!"_ Penny chirped helpfully. His former right hand man turned to try and catch Adam with his elbow, but, a Dust-empowered swing unleashed a wave of energy that sent Almond skidding to the end of the cart. Adam was on him in an instant with his blade sheathed and his foot jammed into Almond's stomach.

For the first time, Almond's aura began to wane. Adam placed his hand on his hilt and began to glow. It was almost over, now...

* * *

 _"Three minutes?! We barely even have enough time to get back together!"_ Neo had given up on trying to hold Yang back, now. Every swing and burst from her gauntlets was responded to only with dodging or the explosion of glass that left her nowhere to be found. But she'd caught on, now, turning around to pressure Neo again the moment she realized she'd been had. Neo had tried to make an offensive, jabbing her with the sharpened tip of her parasol, but, she'd underestimated the power of Yang's semblance. Each blow only bounced off of her like steel. Yang could bite through the pain.

But could Neo?

"That sure must take a lot of aura, huh? Gettin' tired, yet?" Yang taunted Neo as the air shattered again and she watched Neo keep her distance from over her shoulder. "You know we already got Torchwick, right? A~all the way up there. But, don't worry, you might see him again when you're getting dragged to jail!" Neo's eyes flared pink and white, and when Yang turned and fired another burst from Ember Celica to cover her, for once, she met Yang's attack head on by opening her parasol.

The fires would blind her. It was exactly what Yang was waiting for. Putting everything she had into speed, Yang rushed across the short distance, cocked her fist back and swung.

 _"Yang, Adam, how far are you?"_ Weiss asked as the air shattered once more. Yang smirked. She knew exactly where she would be coming, next. She spun and kicked behind her, and the air shattered once more. Flashes of white appeared in the corner of her vision. Neo must've been getting desperate.

She had this.

* * *

 _"Adam?"_

What was he doing? Almond thrashed and roared beneath him, swinging but catching nothing from the desperation of it. Adam had his hand on his hilt, but he couldn't move. It'd be a simple flick of the wrist. One flare of the aura. One use of his Semblance, and it would be done. Almond would be gone. He would've killed Almond.

Wielding a blade infused with Schnee Dust Company dust, with the heiress herself calling to him as he halted and potentially killed hundreds of his own faunus, starting with killing one who was so loyal he refused to even use Dust in his weaponry, no matter how useful it could've been.

Adam felt sick. His hand trembled. The weight of his actions were grave enough to crush him even when his anger was at his peak. He couldn't do it, he realized.

He couldn't kill Edward Almond.

He couldn't kill his friend.

* * *

 _"Yang?"_

First, there was cold.

 _"Yang, can you hear me?"_ Cold that penetrated her even through the unfathomable heat of her aura. Yang's breath caught in her throat as she forced herself to look down. A thin spike of steel was going clean through her stomach from behind, coated in her own blood. A prismatic glow ran across its length and, briefly, Yang swore she could see her own, wide and shocked eyes staring back at her in it, like a mirror reflecting her fears. Her aura waned, trying desperately to force the stiletto blade out or her wound shut.

But her aura was still there.

And with that realization came pain. Crippling pain. A guttural cry came from behind clenched teeth. She swore she heard Neo giggling as a boot pressed into her back and, slowly, _agonizingly_ slowly, Neo pulled her blade out.

Strangely, she also swore she heard a bird's cry as her vision faded.

* * *

 _"Yang! Yang's vitals are dropping, we have to help her!"_ Adam snapped from his thoughts. Below Almond, a door opened and Yang was kicked through it. Neo stepped into sight. Time stopped. Flecks of blood were across her cheek. A blade was drawn, covered in crimson. It was glowing. Aura penetration. No sounds of gunfire. No sounds from Yang.

In an instant, he made his choice: Adam kicked Almond back onto the top of the cart Neo was walking from. He shoved his aura into the last shell in Wilt, pulled the trigger and swung. Neo's eyes widened and she leaped backwards.

A neat, thin line of red escaped Wilt and raced through the train. A second passed, then, it was not the connector that was cut away, but a quarter of the entire cart ahead. Metal screeched against the tracks as the section of the car left behind scraped against the rails, but the rest rapidly fell away into the blackness. Adam saw a glint of white in the distance: Neo's escape.

Almond, however, let out a last, defiant roar, fading away into the horde of Grimm.

Frankly, Adam thought as he raced to the hatch to where Yang was thrown, if they attacked him, the odds were stacked against the Grimm.

* * *

 _"I'm on my way back, Ruby! Neither of them are responding!"_

Ruby-red met emerald-green.

 _"Pick up!"_ Adam stood paralyzed in front of the unconscious Yang, eyes wide in shock.

 _"Say something, anything!"_ A woman clad in black and crimson Mistral-style clothing rose up from beside her. A complicated, plated mask of a Nevermore obscured her face. An ornamental headdress of feathers mixed in with her long, raven-black hair.

"Branwen," Adam breathed out.

Her fingers drummed on the hilt of her sword. A moment passed before she spoke. "You're dealing with things beyond you, Adam. Escape before it's too late." She'd already turned away and drew her crimson blade. A simple flick of the wrist, and a twisting portal of her own colors opened. She'd already taken the first step when Adam realized she was already leaving, just like that.

"What? How? Wait!" Questions rushed to his mind faster than he could ask any of them as he leaped over Yang. Why was she here? Had she been in Vale all this time? Was she a part of this? What about him? What about _Yang?_

To his surprise, Raven stopped. "Vale will fall. You won't stop that." She turned to him and, after a moment's hesitation offered her hand. "Leave Beacon. You'll be safe. So will Blake. You'll do far better with us, _Taurus._ " A reminder. After all, it was her who gave him that last name in the first place.

It was tempting. It'd be easy. No worrying about Cinder digging her claws into Blake. No having to deal with being Ozpin's pawn knowing Blake would be wrapped up into the game. He'd abandoned the White Fang and they knew it: there was no place for him there, any longer. Start anew. Rebuild. Refocus. Let the chips fall where they may. Slowly, Adam reached out.

 _"Wait, look at Yang!"_ Weiss' voice snapped him back to reality. _"Her vitals are... rising? Wait, her aura's gotten higher, too? How?"_

"Yang. What about your daughter?" Raven's outstretched hand tensed for a moment, then relaxed. She refused to look back down.

"What about her?" Adam's eyes widened. His mouth had already opened before he could think. Perhaps to protest, perhaps to bargain, perhaps even to agree. He would never know, for the sound of footsteps were already growing near from behind them. He looked over his shoulder.

When he'd looked back to Raven, the portal was already closing. She was gone.

"Sis!" The door barely had time to open before the wind rushed by him, carrying rose petals in its wake. Ruby was already at Yang's side, shaking her gently. Her sister groaned and shifted. "Are you okay? What happened to Yang? Is she hurt? Was it that girl? Where is she?" Each question came faster and harsher until the last was less an inquiry and more a demand. But, that wasn't the question that bothered him, nor did the dangerous glint in Ruby's silver eyes.

 _Is she hurt?_ She'd been stabbed, of course she would've been hurt. Right?

"Neopolitan is long gone. I don't know her location." Adam slowly looked down as he spoke, keeping his voice level to mask his stress. He could see the blood staining her stomach.

Yang suddenly took a sharp breath and rose, reaching for her abdomen. "... I'm fine?" She moved her hand away. As Ruby hugged her sister and assailed her with a barrage of questions, Adam was trapped in his thoughts. There wasn't even a scar. How? What had Raven done? Why was she here? How did she know?

 _"We will reach the gate in approximately one hundred and eighteen seconds!"_ Penny chimed through their Scrolls.

"I'm sorry to have to break this up," Weiss began as she jogged into the car. "But we don't have any time left! We have to think of something!"

"What about the rest of the controls?" Adam found himself saying, even through the haze of confusion in his mind.

"Destroyed, inoperable or pointless. I'm not a train expert, finding the brakes was the best I could do!"

"Well, we can't just sit around here and do nothing!" Yang hissed through gritted teeth as she forced herself back to her feet, Ruby clutched on tight with her gaze towards the ground. She might not have had a hole in her, but, that didn't mean that having her aura strained and broken wasn't better.

"The White Fang has already started bracing themselves; no one even fired upon me on the way back," Weiss said. "This is the closest to full reign of the train that we're going to get."

 _"Entry into Vale in approximately ninety seconds."_

"There's no time to get back to the front and reverse whatever Torchwick did to the train," Adam said somberly. The implication was clear: they were out of time altogether. Silence crept in, threatening to drag all four of them into what could be their last thoughts.

It was Ruby who pushed through it, eyes hard and determined. "Then we derail it. We... we came here to save Vale, right?" To crash the train here would leave them against White Fang and the Grimm. Alone. It'd be suicide. "No matter what—"

 **"No!"** Adam barked desperately and without thought, hand clenched tight enough around Wilt's hilt to strain it. He wasn't losing them. He wasn't losing _anyone._ He realized, in the single moment of quiet that followed after, that he wasn't afraid of his death. He was afraid of theirs. He was afraid of, just like in those dark mines so long ago, the rescue coming just late enough for some of them to die. For the rest to be survivors, bearing that guilt. It wasn't something he would wish on any of them.

He swallowed down his thoughts and straightened himself as the other three looked on in shock. Adam looked towards the hatch. "We're finding a way out of this." He leaped out of it and raced across the top of the train. The air was getting clearer, now, no doubt from the fresh wind leaking through the gaps in the gateway, whatever it was. Penny was standing at the train's head. Weiss wasn't wrong: even their Praetorians and Paladins were refusing to fire, instead hunkered down. He could feel the eyes of the White Fang on him as he passed.

Penny's gaze was locked on the dark path ahead. "I'm not detecting any form of explosive near the gate," she said without looking at him. The rest of the team came to a halt behind the two, breath catching in their lungs. They could all see it, now: the imposing, steel wall growing closer and closer in the distance, barely lit by red, emergency lights. No bombs, no White Fang, no Paladins or Praetorians. The train was going to crash into the wall traveling at top speed.

As the rest of RWAY and Penny shot countless, panicked plans, scenarios and retorts, Adam stared down at the weapon in his hands. He could see it, now: even with their scant amounts of aura left, they could bunker down in one of the carts or behind an ice wall. They may live. The same could not be said for anyone inside the train: cars haphazardly smashing into one another, the ceiling, the walls. Dust crates detonating. The rubble would lock the remainders within with the Grimm until they broke free and assaulted Vale.

And the Grimm would assuredly feast on anything left behind before doing so.

They might live, but, every last White Fang member here would die.

Behind him, he heard Yang suggest they put everything they have into slowing it enough to break past only the first gate. The train would still crash, but they could squeeze out from the carnage.

They might live, but, _every last White Fang member here would die._

But, there was an alternative.

"Adam!" Time was running out. They were piling into the cab, now. Better chance of getting through and surviving, even if they were at the front of the collision. Ruby watched him from halfway down the hatch, holding onto the roof. Adam couldn't bring himself to look back, not at her. Not after what he knew he needed to do. Slowly, he stepped back towards the hatch.

Ruby wasn't just wrong about her plan to derail the train, Adam knew. She was just as wrong to think that he'd come here to save Vale. She was wrong to think he was so selfless.

She was wrong to think he was a good person.

Time was up. The wall was here.

He could deny it all he wanted, but, Adam knew the White Fang were still his people. He wasn't losing anyone. Especially because of _Cinder._

Adam felt Ruby grab at his coat, trying to pull him towards safety. It was too late: he had made his decision. Gathering up every drop of his hatred and aura alike, Adam ripped Wilt from its sheath and slashed out at the air. A blinding, red light cascaded through the tunnel. Masked in its glow, the sweep of Adam's aura outpaced the train by leagues. In the blink of an eye, it struck the barrier.

And the only obstacle between them and Vale was turned to wilting petals.

Ruby pulled him below the wave of petals as it passed overhead, the vision from the cab's front was obscured by rock, shouts and orders blended together, and the world went black.

* * *

Out of the four Kingdoms, Vale was considered the melting pot of the world. Free of the rigid class structure of Mistral, the ingrained racism of Atlas and the absolute chaos of Vacuo, the people mingled freely within its walls. The undisputed winner of the Great War, it cast away its opportunity to dominate the planet and instead allowed it to remain, believing that its differences only made them stronger. How right it was: its decision to accept its clashes yet refuse to let them spiral left Vale paradoxically one of the more chaotic yet safest places for all kinds.

People walked the streets free from worry in this grand metropolis of thirty million, entire generations being spent without even wandering outside their district, let alone the city's walls. After all, what reason had they to worry? No Grimm could penetrate their natural barriers nor border defenses, no warring armies, no terrorists until only the most recent years, even their criminals were focused on being 'a step above' the rest with codes and laws rather than resorting to pure banditry and chaos.

They were the beacon of the world. A sign that if they could all come together in peace, prosperity would follow. Vale was not the biggest city, nor was it by any means the strongest, but, ask any soul residing behind its numerous walls, and they would tell you that even with the Torches and the White Fang, it was the safest. There was nothing to fear in the night: not the curfews of Atlas, nor the alleys of Mistral, nor raiders of Vacuo.

Those very souls now shifted about in a sleepy haze as the very first of the sun's rays slipped beyond the rooftops to shine upon the streets. It was the crack of dawn, where those stuck in third shift jobs mulled about before returning home, and those unlucky enough to be called in early began their begrudging trek to work. Even in the midst of summer, a cold chill crept through the air: night's embrace tenuously slipping away. Doors were unlocked, 'open' signs flipped over or turned on with the faint hum of Dust, and the beginnings of chatter had begun among the more talkative early birds.

At 6 a.m., the first early alarms began ringing in Beacon, causing no small supply of groans, slammed snooze buttons and pillows wrapped around ears.

At 6:01, shopkeepers waved to passing potential customers in the commercial district.

At 6:02, the upper class district remained in peaceful slumber, their days yet to begin.

At 6:03, the rays of the sun left roosters calling in the agricultural south.

At 6:04, workers jogged into factories where gears and machines groaned, punchcards slammed in barely a minute before they would be written up.

At 6:05, Grimm all across the Forever Fall turned their gaze towards the city beyond.

At 6:06, the ground beneath the residential district shuddered.

And Vale's safety was shattered forever.


	53. V2: Colossal Failure

**Colossal Failure**

* * *

It was an unusually cold morning as Team JNPR dragged themselves from Beacon towards the academy's helipads. Well, as _Jaune_ dragged himself towards the helipads. Much to his dismay, Pyrrha was able to get over her sleepiness just by nursing a mug of coffee, Ren never seemed to be affected by _anything_ and defying all forms of logic and fairness Nora actually was _more_ excitable. And here he was, wiping at his eyes, trying to ignore how cold his armor was getting in the frigid air and—

 _Achoo!_ Ah, yeah, sneezing. That too. Wonder how that'd happened?

"Do you think we left enough food for Zwei?" Pyrrha asked, glancing over her shoulder. Oh right, the dog. The dog he was allergic to.

"Pssh, he'll be _fine_!" Nora hopped in front of the team, grinning wide. Jaune ignored his jealousy. "They'll be back tomorrow!"

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow. "And... how, exactly, do you know that?"

"I peeked over their shoulders, duh! They're in Mountain Glenn!"

Now, _that_ woke Jaune up. "Woah, woah, woah, wait, what?" Jaune looked at the others in his team in disbelief. "They went to Mountain Glenn? There's no way they'd let freshmen like us go there, that's suicide!"

"Team RWAY has always performed admirably; I believe they are fully capable of handling themselves," Ren reassured Jaune as Professor Port waved them down from the far end of the helipads. With most of the teams having already taken off, the place was almost completely empty.

"Yeah, I guess so. Probably why none of them have called, too... I hope they're alright..."

"Come on, Jaune, don't be such a worry-wart!" Nora exclaimed. "We're about to go be heroes! Saving villages!"

"Just one," Ren corrected.

"Slaying hundreds of Grimm!"

"There were only a dozen reported."

"They're gonna hang our portraits up in the schools and sing our praises forever!"

" _Highly_ unlikely." Pyrrha giggled.

"Alright, alright, Nora, you win, I'll keep it positive. Come on, let's not keep Professor Port waiting any—" The earth shuddered. Jaune stumbled and the others braced themselves as a crackling roar came from afar. Before any could ask what had happened, Pyrrha covered her mouth and pointed off towards the city of Vale across the river, where black, thick smoke coiled up into the sky. In the low light of dawn, they could even spot multicolored flashes from within. A low whine rose from the city.

Alarms.

Alarms that cascaded down the city, the roads and eventually began blaring in Beacon itself. "What's going on?!" Jaune shouted over the din and looked around at his team. Pyrrha seemed just as lost as he was, Nora was squeezing her eyes shut and shielding her ears from the blaring horns, but, his attention was drawn to Ren. He stood stock still, skin pale and with eyes widened just enough for him to notice.

Ren clenched his fist. "Grimm."

* * *

When Emerald returned to their room with Cinder in tow, their leader's plan was simple: if Emerald and Blake were having so trouble sleeping, then they might as well go out for coffee and start their day early. Such was how Blake found herself in the backseat of a rental car, Cinder driving them through the nigh-empty streets of outer Vale in the morning. Supposedly, there was a small coffee shop 'to die for' hidden away in the residential district. They even had a discount for students, which was why Cinder _insisted_ they keep their weapons on them as proof.

It was a quiet ride, at least, until an earthquake shook the roads and the alarms began to wail. People stumbled out of their houses and shops, bleary and confused as they searched for the source. Blake could barely take the noise even from within the car, bow flattening to her head and hands rising to her ears.

Cinder and Emerald, however, only shared a glance, unfazed.

"How far out is Mercury?" Emerald asked.

"Too far; he said he'd be late."

"Lucky him..." With the screeching of tires, they sped off towards the epicenter of disaster.

* * *

 _"This is not a test. The following message is being transmitted at the request of the Council of the Kingdom of Vale."_

Adam was the first to stir in the darkness. Rubble pressed down on him from all angles, the incessant blaring of klaxons and ringing of bells only serving to press him down further. He wanted nothing more than to succumb to the unconsciousness already beginning to claw at his mind. Until he heard the screaming. Then, the growls and roars following behind it. Adam remembered why he was here and, with all the might he could muster forced the rock and dust off of him to stumble to his feet.

 _"An order of evacuation has been placed on the residential quarter of the City of Vale."_

It was a mistake. Blood trickling down his forehead left him half-blind, a constant, piercing pain atop his head told him he'd definitely chipped his horn, and his head felt like it weighed five times as much as it usually did. He stumbled, vision swimming until his flailing hand could find purchase on something to hold him up. Adam leaned on it until he could make out what it was: a countertop. A cash register laid crushed against the wall beside him. Shelves and racks dotted the area in various states of disarray and destruction, clothing and hats scattered across in a tattered spray of colors. Sparks jumped from the ceiling where wires hung limp. A shop.

 _"This is a Class 2 Grimm invasion warning. Repeating: this is a Class 2 Grimm warning."_

A destroyed shop, the source of its destruction and his unlikely safety being embedded through its front wall and occupying the majority of the space: the front cab of a massive train, front window shattered and dimly-glowing smoke pouring out from below it. It was the only source of light beyond a single television that managed to survive with power, sound crackling and recognizable, but its screen cracked and leaving only a myriad of murky colors displayed..

"Weiss!" Adam hoarsely called out into the madness. He could barely hear his own voice.

 _"_ _Please remain calm. The epicenter is located in District R71. All civilians within three miles are to evacuate immediately using planned evacuation routes."_

"Ruby!" He stumbled forward. Crimson metal glinted ahead. Adam collapsed as he reached out for it, and his hand wrapped around Wilt and Blush. A brief check showed it was mostly unharmed. Any comfort he might've gained from it was strangled by the lack of voices in the train.

 _"If you cannot evacuate, seek shelter in—"_ The report of three shots from Blush permanently silenced the screen. One less noise to add to the cacophony. Adam forced himself up to his knees.

"Yang!" A side door of the train blew open. Adam could hear coughing within.

"Really? I'm last?" Yang struggled to walk out into the dark shop, dragging a half-unconscious Weiss behind her. "That's rough." Even through all this, she put on a smile. Ruby stepped out last, coughing and needing Penny to hold her up. Adam hung his head and breathed out a sigh of relief. Some of the tightness around his heart faded.

"Is everyone alright?" Ruby asked, looking around to get a grasp of their situation. Quiet groans and three shaky thumbs-ups were the response from RWAY.

"Aura levels are at only 25 percent, Ruby, but I am willing to fight!" Penny reassured her. Ruby managed a smile and checked the wall they burst in from. The only view of the outside was through the gaps between rubble, wall and train, and most of that was obscured by smoke. The ground trembled from the stampede of people and Grimm alike outside, and the building creaked ominously above them.

"Has... anyone seen Torchwick anywhere?" Ruby asked. There were only uneasy glances between her teammates.

"I knocked him out," Weiss mumbled. "He shouldn't be a problem even if he got out of that." A cold, dim light came from Weiss' scroll as she peered at the team's status. "Unfortunately, we aren't doing much better," Weiss murmured. The crash drained every drop of aura they had just so they'd live. Even after however much time had passed, none of them were too much higher than 20 percent. Almost low enough to risk injury.

"I hate to say it, but, maybe we should let the real Huntresses and Huntsmen stop this one?" Yang suggested.

"If the White Fang's plan is what I thought, they'll be tying up every authority here. They won't be able to stop this," Adam said.

"Well, they might not, be we will!" Ruby declared. "We were supposed to stop it in the first place, so... so it's our job to make things right!" She stumbled as she stepped away from Penny, but raised Crescent Rose nonetheless.

"And how do you plan to do that?" Weiss asked. The building shook, and dust tumbled down onto them. The first cracks of gunfire began to resound: early cops no doubt trying to hold off the Grimm.

"Well, I..." Ruby's gaze turned to the ground, words failing her. The four stared on at their leader, awaiting her plan, but, she said nothing at all. After a few seconds, Adam turned to the others and opened his mouth to start giving commands.

"If our aura levels are this low," Ruby began, "we can't depend too much on our long-range weaponry without Dust ammunition or aura to empower it. We need to save both, so they're out of the question. So, we're gonna stay at close range! I have the largest reach and longest range, so I'll hold our rear flank against approaching Grimm. Yang!" Yang blinked and pointed to herself, caught off-guard by Ruby's sudden control of the situation. "You have the most aura out of all of us, so you're going to be our frontline. Penny, can you do that floating... blade thing without using aura?"

"That's classified," Penny spoke without thinking, then paused. "Actually... you know what, yes! Yes, I can!" she declared with a bright smile.

"Perfect! You're gonna join her! Adam, Weiss, you're our reserves and alpha-specialists. Any time Yang or Penny look like they're in trouble or you see any Grimm that's alpha or mutated, take it down!" Weiss nodded slowly, looking just as shocked as Yang.

Adam, however, raised an eyebrow. "It's impossible for us to form a perimeter with just the law enforcement on hand."

"Yep! That's why we're not going to create one at all! We're going right for the heart: the hole the train blew open. That's why you two are the reserves: with your Semblance and Weiss' ice Dust we can destroy any bit of the train left and then freeze the breach over!"

"And the inevitable White Fang fortification around it?"

"Freezerburn uses only a small amount of ice Dust: we use that to block their vision, you only need to hit once, and all that mist will only make the ice wall stronger. We'll be in and out before they even know it."

"What of the Grimm and Fang forces already in the city?"

"We'll cut off the head!" Ruby countered with a prideful smile. "We find the green Taijitu, load all of our Dust ammunition and target it first."

"It'll be unlikely that we won't take casualties. We can't afford to leave any behind with the Grimm."

Ruby smirked and put a hand on her hip. "Which is where Yang and I come in: I'm quick enough to take anyone who gets too hurt to an allied perimeter, and with Yang's Semblance if there's an emergency we can bust right through it. Worst comes to worst, we hunker down and hold out for allies."

Adam glanced away in thought. His lips parted.

"Oh, and if there's any sign of Cinder, or Neo, or Angry Chainsaw Guy, we use Red Bull to disorient and we'll go around them altogether. So... what do you all think? Good plan?" Ruby was met with silence and wide eyes. "Should I... um... take that as a no?"

Yang beamed with pride. "It's great! Perfect!" She assured her.

"I... see nothing wrong with it at all." Weiss nodded to Ruby with a smile.

"I anticipate an 83 percent chance of success, commander Ruby!"

No small amount of pride in his own eyes, Adam held a hand up and conceded. "A remarkable plan for such little time."

Ruby's eyes lit up and she pointed Crescent Rose off at the wall. "Great! Come on, Team RWAY—and Penny—let's save the day!" With the battle cry of her team behind her, Ruby twirled and slashed at the wall, blasting the rubble free and letting the sunlight illuminate their first sight of Vale in days.

It was a disaster. The early rays of the sun were obscured by vast pillars of smoke rising in every direction. The civilian populace had fled the area, yet the screams of thousands still echoed through the air. Grimm of all kinds leaped across rooftops and pillaged buildings, the chaos so great that the five students were all but invisible to the horde of black rushing through the streets. Gunfire echoed in all directions, yet, they couldn't see any signs of the police from here. Some buildings were already reduced to rubble, including the ones in front of them. The end of a train car still stuck out from the wreckage.

The sound of Dust exploding rippled through the city from so far away that the five realized as one that the train never stopped. It had kept going, clean through whatever barriers there were left, rolling and crashing through all in its path until it embedded itself in the shop behind it. Yet, the Grimm had already expanded out this far.

A Beowolf fed messily on one of the deceased stragglers left behind in the madness in front of them.

"Ruby..." Yang reached out for her sister. Ruby's eyes narrowed, and a single shot struck the Beowolf from its prey and into oblivion.

"The plan's the same. We're getting to where we broke in from and we'll seal the breach. Yang! Penny! Form up the front!" She took a deep breath to steady herself. "We're saving Vale."

* * *

The path towards the epicenter was not an easy one. Penny had determined that their point of entry was the city's center, but, they were nearly a mile away. This wasn't much of a distance for Huntresses and Huntsmen, yet...

Ruby batted away what must've been her tenth Beowolf already. They were getting bogged down, barely even halfway there. Three Ursas growled and stepped out from around overturned cars and bodies to face her. At the front of their group, Yang and Penny combined were trying to clear the way towards a Beowolf with countless, tall sea-green spikes for Adam and Weiss, yet, the wave of Beowolves seemed almost endless.

"Yang! Switch!" She fired Crescent Rose at the ground, launching herself into the fray just as Yang shot herself backwards and into the sparse, but powerful Grimm behind them. Ruby's scythe was far superior and clearing away the smaller foes and, with only three twirls of her weapon, they had a clear shot through the black miasma.

"Frostbite! Keep it small!" Ruby called to them. Weiss sent a pinpoint burst of energy through the already-closing horde to lock the mutated Grimm's leg, then flicked her rapier up to form only two glyphs: one above and one behind it. Adam sprung up from the center of the group towards the glyph above, kicked off and slashed clean through the Beowolf. The surrounding Grimm didn't even have a chance to react to their mutated alpha's cry before Adam landed atop the second glyph, spun and in the blink of an eye appeared before his team.

The alpha's top half slid away and melted into viscous oil. The bottom half, and the cohesion of the Grimm facing them, dissipated soon after.

"There's still too many!" Yang drew her fist out of an Ursa's crushed skull, a second already fading beside her. The third had begun to back up, but, she could see sparse beads of black growing in the sky. Nevermores. They'd already managed to start slipping through Vale's defenses.

Ruby searched for a way out, cleaving through the disorganized Grimm until she spotted a tall hotel building in the distance. "Up there! We'll have good sight on the breach!" Yang dashed up, loading her gauntlets to launch herself through the skies. "Wait! Hold on the ammo, we might still need it."

"We're going to _walk_ up those stairs?" Weiss shouted as she ducked beneath a Beowolf's swing and drove her rapier up through its jaw.

"Better than burning all of our Dust and aura now," Adam retorted, drawing his blade and firing Blush to blast a Boarbatusk away from Penny before it could get too close.

"Yep! Weiss, Adam, clear us a path! Penny, watch our sides!" Ruby called. With plentiful time as the 'reserves' filling up enough of their aura, Adam and Weiss both raised their weapons and bolted into the fray. Flashes of fiery-red and ice blue slashed and shredded Grimm as Team RWAY followed behind their spearhead, green bolts of Dust from Penny blasting any Grimm too close for comfort.

* * *

"... How long were we out?" Yang asked as Weiss froze the hotel's doors shut, and Adam shot the last Beowolf trying to climb in through the window. The hotel's lobby was a microcosm of everything that had gone wrong in Vale. The lights were on, every television set turned to the same, incessant emergency broadcast. Pale, cream-colored carpets were stained crimson. Furniture was overturned and cracked, bulletholes marked the walls and ceiling, and the small of Dust was in the air. There'd been a firefight between the citizens and Grimm.

Streaks of blood all led to a dented, half-open set of elevator doors. The citizens had lost.

"Long enough for Vale to go straight to hell," Adam murmured as he stepped through the carnage long past.

Penny looked around, then frowned. "I... detect no civilian life in this building." The team looked between one another. Ruby clutched Crescent Rose tight, hands starting to tremble. Yang stepped towards her, only for Ruby to storm off towards the stairwell.

"All the more reason we have to stop it from happening somewhere else." The dash up the ten flights of stairs was almost entirely spent in silence. Only near the top through did Weiss raise a question:

"Where have the White Fang been?"

"Waiting, most likely," Adam replied as they stormed back out into the dawn.

"They've gotten exactly what they wanted; why aren't they using the element of... surprise..." Weiss trailed off as she joined the rest on the rooftop, just barely able to see the breach in the distance. Living in a mansion in the middle of a frozen wasteland for most of her life left Weiss knowing very little about how animals and insects truly worked. She'd hear about beehives and cockroaches and colonies, but she never had to deal with these things in the arctic cold of Atlas.

Even so, this was what she imagined an anthill looked like. A building had collapsed over where the train must've blown through, but it wasn't enough: the Grimm had dug through the hill of rubble and were pouring out of it like vermin, the ground barely visible beneath the shroud of smoky darkness the Grimm carried behind them. The wave of Grimm was only broken up by the occasional detached train car standing above it all and glimpses of sea-green leading the pack deeper into their city.

Above they could see the massive airships of Atlas slowly approaching in the distance, yet, was even that going to be enough?

"Ruby... what do we do, now?" Weiss tore her eyes away from the unfolding disaster to look at her leader. She regretted it: Ruby was shattered. Crescent Rose hung limp in her arms, and she stared off in a daze towards the sea of Grimm. Whether it was tears or just the reflection of the sun, her silver eyes looked like they held a light of their own, growing ever brighter.

Ruby never had the chance to respond, however, as the cracking of stone and hiss of Grimm drew their attention below. No doubt drawn by their grief, the black head of a King Taijitu swirled up into view, maw large enough to devour any one of them in a single bite. Bricks cracked and fell from below and the building groaned in strain: the snake was large enough to crush the entire hotel in its grip.

It leaned back to lunge, Yang pulled Ruby back from in front of it and braced herself to defend them. Adam and Weiss readied their weapons. Penny, however, leaned over to peer behind the snake. Her eyes widened.

"Move!" They could hear an explosion and... giggling in the distance. Adam and Weiss jumped back without a moment of doubt, and Penny all but tackled Yang and Ruby to the ground.

In a burst of pink, a hammer slammed into the serpent's head hard enough to crush it into the roof and send up a plume of cracked rock and dust. It twitched. Nora drew her hammer from the shattered faceplate, then turned to the five on the roof, staring at her, stunned. "And just where have you been, Team RWAY? My team's been worried sick about you!"

"Nora..." Ruby and Yang grunted from beneath Penny. She giggled awkwardly and moved off of the two sisters.

"First, you go off on some secret mission without even telling us, then you don't call or even shoot us a text like 'hey, Nora, it's us, RWAY! Just letting you know we're not all dying horribly to the Grimm or anything', now you show up here?"

"Nora!" Weiss shouted.

"What?" Nora put a hand on her waist.

"The Grimm's still alive!"

Nora blinked once. Twice. She looked down, her eyes meeting with the red ones of the King Taijitu. "Oh." The Grimm hissed and began to rise. The building let out a horrid shriek of metal and began to lurch. Bullets and bolts from RWAY and Penny smacked into its thick hide, but, with them so low on aura, it did little.

The minigun of a Bullhead rising up from below them, however, was substantially more effective, splashing black ichor across the faltering hotel and leaving the King Taijitu's head collapsing back on the rooftop. This time, it stayed still.

"Careful, Nora!" The jets of the Bullhead blew away the dust and darkness both, revealing Jaune kneeling in the side door of the aircraft and Professor Port beside him watching for any incoming Grimm. "Everyone, get on! That other head isn't going to take that lying down!"

A loud series of cracks and rumbles like that of a grand tree falling only proved his point: if the King Taijitu couldn't devour them, it'd crush them instead. With the roof tilting at an angle steep enough to make it difficult to stand straight, the five rushed to its edge and leaped, one by one, into the Bullhead's side door. Nora was the last, waiting until everyone else was safe before blasting herself aboard with her grenade-firing hammer.

The Bullhead couldn't have taken off any sooner, for, with a final burst of dust and crackling of stone, the building could take no more and collapsed around the King Taijitu, its last, suicidal attempt to take them down with it. Flames erupted from Dust lines and lights being crushed, leaving yet another part of Vale burning. The plumes of smoke were growing all the more common across the city, enveloping the entire city center. From so high, they could see flashes along the cloud's edges, and battle cries joining in with the shouts and screams: the police were finally joined up by other Huntsmen.

"Why isn't Atlas firing?" Weiss asked.

"There are currently over ten thousand civilians still alive in this area alone. An Atlesian Carrier may have the necessary firepower, but, we cannot be sure about collateral damage." Penny dutifully reported. "It would be an international incident and—"

"So, Vomit Boy!" Yang clapped a hand on Jaune's shoulder hard enough to make him stumble. Penny pouted at being cut off. "Where's the rest of the team?"

Jaune grumbled something under his breath about her choice of nickname that went either unheard or ignored by the blonde. "Pyrrha and Ren are grabbing any stragglers they can from behind the lines. Sun and Neptune were lucky enough to be near the center: they're rallying the police. We even got some students from Patch that were visiting for the Vytal Festival in the area, and—"

"Woah, woah, woah, I just meant your team! How do you know all that stuff, anyway?" Yang asked.

"Well, I, uh... kind of wound up commanding them."

"How do you just _wind up_ commanding a relief force?" Weiss sounded suspicious.

"Hey, don't look at me like that, I don't know either! I'd just started calling everyone up and it sort of... just happened. I guess I'm pretty good at giving orders?" He perked up as his Scroll rang and held a hand out. "One sec... Ren! How's the situation, down there?"

* * *

In the victorious atmosphere there was still one little dark cloud, sitting at the Bullhead's edge with her legs dangling off and Crescent Rose clutched in her arms. Hearing Jaune giving out commands over his Scroll, leading the Huntsmen and calling shots just drove it in even more for Ruby: they'd screwed up. The time to be the big hero had passed long before they'd woken up. Their first real mission, and they'd managed to screw it up so bad that Vale was getting invaded for the first time in decades.

No. She had gotten captured. _She_ had screwed it up that badly. This was her fault.

"Where do you need us?" Yang asked Jaune.

"You guys? Uh... look, no offense, but with your aura levels I think it's time you guys took a break." It was her fault and, now, there was nothing she could do about it. A flash of green caught her eye in the distance.

"Pssh, we'll be fine! We made it this far!" Green and... black. Further down into the cloud, she could just make out a gigantic, serpentine silhouette slithering through the streets with sea-green spines lining its back. The King Taijitu controlling them all.

"Yeah, speaking of that, how did you guys even get there? I thought you were in Mountain Glenn!" Nora piped up.

"Looong story, but, we wouldn't have gotten this far without Rubes here, right, sis?" As if knowing it was seen, the mutant King Taijitu rose its head high into the air, surrounded by a horde of Grimm. It was right there. She could still do something. She could still save the day, and all she'd need to do was take down one enemy.

"Rubes?" Her grip tightened on Crescent Rose. "Sis?" The gaze of the Grimm locked onto hers.

Ruby jumped.

* * *

"Ruby, what the hell are you—" Yang could only shout in frustration as she leaped off after Ruby without a moment's hesitation. In the blink of an eye, two of their teammates had just jumped headfirst into disaster. They didn't have time to focus on that, either, as bullets clanged and bounced off of the hull of the Bullhead.

"Hold your fire, hold your fire, we're friendly!" Jaune leaned out of the side of the Bullhead, and his breath caught in his throat. It wasn't Huntsmen or police shooting at them. On the rooftops, numerous citizens had gathered up. They all had three things in common: they were armed, they were faunus, and they wore pale masks.

"White Fang!" And then all hell broke loose: claps of thunder erupted far and wide across the entire city, Jaune's scroll began to buzz without end and below they could see glimpses of white multiplying, joining in with the wave of Grimm. They crashed into the perimeters and lines of police with an intelligence and surprise that destroyed their organization. The wails and cries of Vale rose up as one once more. A high-pitched whine came from the front of their Bullhead, joining in.

"What's going on!" Jaune called back as their aircraft lurched off to one side and dropped closer to the streets, soaring above scattering civilians and the beginnings of Vale's sparse military.

"Something's trying to lock onto us, hold on," the pilot called back. Streams of white smoke flew out from deeper into the city. Missiles.

"Wait, go back, we need to get to Ruby and Yang!" Weiss exclaimed, throwing up glyph after her glyph with what sparse aura she had left to intercept and divert the deadly missiles from striking them. Pink bursts from Nora's grenades joined in, and Jaune was thrown to one knee by the rocking and shuddering of the Bullhead, swallowing down his air sickness just enough to start calling for status reports.

"On it!" Penny jumped across to one of the rooftops and was gone in a flash, sprinting off to where they'd last seen the two.

"We aren't going anywhere near there, pal!" the pilot shouted. They could see other Bullheads rushing towards the center, joined in by giant, whale-like ships hovering just behind: Vale's own militia. They were expecting to slay Grimm, guns ignoring the armed people below, sensors disregarding the Atlesian machines scattered in the streets, eyes focused on the skies for Nevermores, surely the only thing that could strike them at this height.

They didn't fare nearly as well as their own Bullhead. Already, burning wrecks were dropping from the skies like wounded birds from a rain of missiles, surviving occupants taking their chances with aura and landing strategies by leaping out rather than following the falling carcass to their inevitable demise. It wasn't just from the city center, either: all across the city, shrouds had been pulled free to reveal inactive Paladins, Dust bombs and rockets aimed towards the sky. Without the main thrust, they wouldn't have stood a chance to be any more than a nuisance.

But with the train having carved a path of destruction...

Adam gritted his teeth and took a step towards the edge. Buildings were flying past in blurs. The distance between them and the other half of their team grew every second. "I'm going down there." They didn't know, but, deep down, Adam did: that selfish choice of his had caused this.

"This far from them?" Weiss asked.

"I'm not going after Ruby. I trust her that much." Adam looked over the streets below, following the main road up towards the establishing 'front line'. He needed to make things right, once and for all. "I'm going after the White Fang."

"You won't need to worry about Ruby and Yang, anyway," Jaune spoke up. "If that's the Ruby we know, she's probably going right in for where this is all coming from. Lucky for us, _I_ managed to wrangle up some people who can help." He brought up his Scroll. "Did you get those coordinates? Uh-huh... great."

"Team CFVY, give 'em a wake-up call."


	54. V2: The Third Crusade

**The Third Crusade**

* * *

"Faunus! Comrades! Allies to the cause!" In the darkness of one of the countless train cars, the White Fang huddled and prepared. Some were wounded, bleeding and groaning still from their crash. Others were all the more empowered by it. She stood firmly in the middle: untouched, yet, no more prepared for what was to occur. She was lucky to be from Beacon.

"We are about to embark on the Third Crusade! The eyes of Vale will be upon us all, no longer able to ignore our message!" Their officer shouted from the door. Even with their enhanced hearing, his voice barely carried over the gunfire and roar of battle outside. To hear them outside the heavily-armored walls of the train car would be impossible. Already, attempts had been made to get inside, but, locked doors and more pressing, dangerous matters kept the attention of the humans on the Grimm.

"Already, our other cells lay siege to the human authorities! Already, our loyal faunus have begun their assault! Now, our chance to dismantle this corrupt kingdom has come!" Her eyes traced across the others in the room. Some were enraptured by the speech of their commanding officer. Some focused on the door that would soon open to the war. Others, even through the slits in their masks, met her gaze. She turned away from them.

"Make no mistake, White Fang, this shall be a great struggle. Many will die. But know that for each of you who shall perish, we shall have claimed five humans in our revenge!" Excited murmurs rippled through the crowd. She stayed silent. She hoped none saw her spotted ears laying flat against her head. A beep cut the officer's speech short.

"It's time." She could hear the vicious grin in his words. "Aura users, I want you up front!" She dragged her feet moving towards the door. "Remember, all of you. Remember why we fight. Remember what they've done." She remembered her family. She remembered how they'd died. How she couldn't do anything. Her anger was like a match in a frozen night, but, it had to do. Her breath steadied, and she raised her rifle. "Remember to show them no mercy!" Small Dust charges burst ahead, hurling the metal doors off into Vale. For the briefest moment, the streets were silent. She froze.

A line of police cars half-torn and riddled with razor-sharp feathers and claw marks were the only things holding back what looked like a river of ink. Grimm were dissipating in the streets, already being replaced by more of their own kind, weak against a defensible position, perhaps, but, their numbers filled the street as far as she could see, crawling atop cars and buildings alike. The roads were dark like that of Mountain Glenn's, sun obscured by the smoke and ash. Police gaped in shock at the legion of soldiers in the train cart. Even the Grimm, for that moment burned into her mind, stared at them in curiosity.

But what caught her eye most were the civilians. There were so many. Watching. Running. Helping the best they could. They too, turned back to look.

She wished they hadn't.

"Open fire!" The roar of the assault rifles beside them silenced the screams of the crowd before they could even begin. Her own was silent, trembling in her hands. Her attempts to bring up her rage slipped through her fingers like sand. She didn't understand. There were faunus in the crowds. She thought they were capturing military targets: bases, police stations, armories. She didn't think they'd be targeting civilians. She didn't even think this many Grimm _existed_ between Mountain Glenn and Vale.

As the shouts and cries fell silent, she realized she heard nothing to her right. She looked over to find another soldier, clad in the same uniform as her, the same black band marking him as a defector from Beacon on his arm. He too, hadn't fired. She realized, as he stared back at her, that many more had not, as well.

But, as she was shoved forward by the wave of men and women moving out from the train car, she knew they were outnumbered by their more bloodthirsty allies. The Grimm stormed passed them without so much as an errant tail slapped in their direction. A young Beowolf even smashed right into her in its haste, bowling the two of them over and knocking the rifle from her grip. Her hand scrambled for her pistol, only for her realize the Grimm did not even swipe at her. It only cocked its head to one side as it rose, nodded towards the road ahead, and raced off. Like it was asking her to follow.

Like she was one of them.

And follow, her comrades did, one by one, rushing forward into the madness leaving only stragglers behind. She couldn't. Her feet only brought her backwards. Her hands only tore the mask from her face. Her eyes only traced along those left further back as well. Her mind only noticed that they were staring right back at her.

Chiffon dropped her pistol and ran.

She didn't notice that the soldiers sprinting behind her wore the same black armbands as she.

Nor did she notice the broken, white masks of Grimm left behind them.

* * *

Ruby had to keep going. She slid under a pouncing Beowolf and brought her scythe up to cleave it in half as she passed by. It was just one of many on this street. She could hear gunfire and shouts further back, but, they were all in the distance, now. This area was fully ruled by Grimm, and she was here to kill its queen. Even as she cleaved through the creatures of darkness, Ruby could see the sea-green eyes of the serpent peering down from blocks ahead. It knew she was coming for it. By all means, she should've known it would mean she was headed towards a trap.

Right now, however, Ruby was laser-focused on only one thing: saving the day.

A blast from her rifle sent her flying up onto the roof of a nearby building. Pillars of smoke had started mixing together in the skies to form a shroud that blocked out the sun. Atlas' warships hung as silhouettes in the sky, cannons rarely lighting up in great flashes in the sky, but, each blast sent streaks of light far behind her to support the soldiers and police. They'd written this place off completely. It all reminded her a little too much of Mountain Glenn.

All the more reason to not screw this one up.

Ruby was checking her ammunition when she heard a blast of gunfire directly behind her. Fearing the worst, she spun and aimed her rifle at the potential new foe. Ruby flinched and lowered Crescent Rose when she realized just who she was pointing her gun at.

"What do you think you're doing?" Yang asked with frightful calmness, her hands on her hips and bright-red eyes boring into Ruby's. Red eyes and no rage never boded well. Ruby had really hoped she'd never be on the receiving end of that combination.

"I-I, um..." All of Ruby's bravado and determination briefly slipped away from her. Yang's eyes passed her over, then widened when she saw the coiling serpent watching them from afar, the very same she'd seen chasing them in the tunnels.

Her eyes flared. "You were chasing after that, weren't you? Without telling any of us? Your own team?" Ruby struggled to find an answer. "What were you thinking!"

"I-I..." Ruby mumbled something too quiet to hear under her breath.

"What?"

She squeezed Crescent Rose. "I can beat it! I'm the only one quick enough to get to it, and I've got enough ammo, and if I conserve my aura enough I know I can take it down and if I do then maybe..." Ruby took a breath to slow her rambling. "Maybe this'll all stop."

"Oh, you can beat it, huh? Just like you beat the Deathstalker in initiation all by yourself?" Ruby opened her mouth to protest, but, seeing Yang move at all silenced her. Ruby flinched as she drew close, unknowingly holding her weapon tighter to her and only loosening her grip when Yang pulled her into a crushing hug. "You... you just can't solve problems by running at them alone, sis. Not when you've got your team right behind you. Especially me. Alright?"

Ruby's response was muffled from the tight embrace, but, Yang got the gist of it: she knew. Yang let her little sister go and tried to mask how much her just vanishing off into the swarm of Grimm had scared her, just as much as she tried to mask how she swiped a tear away from her eye.

"So..." Ruby tapped her fingers on Crescent Rose. "Does that mean you'll help me?" She asked with a hopeful smile.

"Nope!" Ruby's face fell. "I'm here to drag you back whether you like it or not. I know it's hard to hear, but..." Yang wasn't the most heroic type, she knew, but, she still found the words hard to say. "I... don't think we can fix this one."

Ruby's lips drew into a tight line and her brow furrowed. Unable to keep her gaze on either her sister or the district they were about to leave behind, she stared down at her feet and took a deep breath. Yang was right. She forced herself to look at Yang and opened her mouth to speak.

The wind whipped around them and the whine of a Bullhead's jet filled their ear as one of Beacon's aircraft swept by the building then hovered overhead. The doors at its sides rose.

"We heard you two needed some fire support!" called Coco, still dressed as if she were going out to the mall, fanciful purse and all. Ruby's eyes all but sparkled as she pulled away from Yang and waved them down.

"You bet your butts we do!" Ruby shouted with a grin as Yang watched on, unsure whether she should be glad her sister got her hope back, or afraid of exactly what that would entail. "There's a big Grimm controlling all of this: if we can take it out, it'll bring this whole thing tumbling down!"

"Well then, kid, sounds like you're going to need a spearhead." Coco smirked and nodded off to the rest of her team. Yatsuhashi leaped into the street below, crashing down with a pulse of green aura that shook the building and shredded not just the road but the Grimm for yards around. Fox landed at his side, but was only visible for a moment before he'd taken off down the ruined road, cutting down any remnants of the creatures of darkness that had survived.

"Come on, Yang! There's still hope for us, yet!" With a shot from her scythe, Ruby was off into the fray yet again, leaving Yang to follow behind and pray nothing else would go wrong. With Velvet weaving intricate webs of Dust that sent comets of ice and flaming meteors soaring into the largest groups of Grimm, Ruby and Yang were even able to catch their breath. The commotion—and no doubt the serpentine leader realizing it was in danger—was summoning hordes of Grimm towards them, but, with CFVY at their side, Ruby was sure they could do anything.

The time for heroes and heroines hadn't ended, it had only begun.

* * *

"What... what's going on, here?" Weiss asked herself as she stared out into the plaza she and Adam had jumped down to. They'd thought this was a faunus-dominated neighborhood: a prime target for the White Fang to take, Weiss had thought out loud. An unlikely place for the Vale military to defend, Adam had added. Combined, it'd likely be a stable location free of fighting, making it the perfect place to get prepared to down the White Fang's operations.

Instead, they'd fallen into a warzone as bad as the one they'd left. Soldiers clashed across the plaza, gunfire ringing out across streets and in houses, roars of Grimm occasionally rising out of the chaos. Vale's military had tried to form a foothold here, instead finding themselves faced by the White Fang. But, it was not the White Fang fighting the military that drew their attention.

"It's a mutiny," Adam muttered. What drew their attention was the White Fang soldiers fighting _each other._ Surviving only from the Grimm targeting only the protectors of Vale, the White Fang had turned on itself, the differences between the two 'sides' being invisible to them beyond a few who were without their masks. The entire plaza was a messy, four-way battle: Grimm against White Fang against themselves against the military.

Weiss only narrowed her eyes at the battle ahead. Adam jogged forward. "We don't have time to think on it! Take them down!" He called back, and Weiss followed. In the madness surrounding them, the two managed to grow close with barely any attention brought to themselves at all, even with the Schnee crest emblazoned on Weiss' back like a target. Gunfire smacked into the ground around them as they passed by, the occasional rocket even soaring above their heads, but, by the time they were close enough to the carnage to fight, it was much too late to stop them.

Weiss rushed into the fray, shattering auras with pinpoint strikes and leaping away to deliver the same fate to another before the White Fang grunts could even recognize what happened. Adam split away from her, firing Wilt into the window of a building he heard gunfire within and leaped after it. He grabbed his blade from the air and twisted to swing at first soldier he saw: one peering at a door down a hallway, hand wrapped around a shortsword.

The soldier turned. Her cheetah ears twitched. Adam's blade halted at her neck just as she yelped and fell to the ground, bringing an arm to cover her unmasked face. An arm still carrying a black armband, almost invisible against her dark sleeve. Chiffon. Adam gazed down at his former student until he heard the murmurs and labored breathing around him and realized she was not alone.

Huddled behind couches and against walls were others like her: White Fang soldiers without masks, yet with black armbands. Some of the soldiers still carried their weapons, yet looked unsure if they even wanted to aim at him or not. Many were wounded or showed signs of a struggle. They were all traitors to Beacon.

The question was if they were traitors to the White Fang, as well.

* * *

Her aura was almost completely drained now, Weiss thought: her soul could only create so much to fill the gaps she kept creating and so much to power every strike and slash across the White Fang soldiers. Still, she refused to stop now, flipping over a car a squad of five White Fang were using as cover to pin down Vale's soldiers. With one swipe of her rapier, she struck one across the face and left him collapsed on the ground. With another, she knocked the gun of a second out of their hand and froze a third to the ground.

She turned a fierce glare towards the last two. They dropped their weapons on the spot. Weiss could faintly hear some of the soldiers whistling and cheering for her. Taking a page from her dramatic teammates, she flourished her rapier for them before jogging off further up the street. She couldn't see Adam anywhere, but, he could hold his own. What she needed was time to check her Scroll and find out just where Ruby and Yang had gotten to. Weaving through the warzone, she finally managed to slip into an untouched alleyway.

A check of her Scroll had Weiss grimacing on instinct. The situation had arguably gotten even worse for their team, with herself struggling to stay above ten percent of her aura, and the other three not faring much better. They were running on fumes. Scarcely two hits away from total vulnerability. She didn't even have any more ice or energy Dust, but, at least, none of them appeared to be taking any further damage. A flick to her map showed Ruby and Yang about where she expected them to be: near the epicenter of all of this and getting closer. They weren't too far, at least. She and Adam could catch up.

She sighed. "Those two are going to get us killed, some day, I swear."

 _"Traitor!"_ A shout echoed through the alley over the din of conflict. Weiss was already running that way before she could think.

 _"We're giving everything for you, and you protect the one who'll take it away!"_ She peered around a corner to find a trio of White Fang goons aiming their weapons at a pair of civilians. One had a tail protectively curled around himself. The other had dog ears flattened to her head. Behind them was one of the White Fang's own, yet wounded and without their mask. They had the group trapped with their backs to the wall and, though they had space to escape left or right, there was no way they'd outrun the bullets of the White Fang.

Weiss bit her lip: one of the three soldiers was stockier than the others with a large machine gun in his arms. Just her luck to run into some elite soldier rather than more grunts. A dark part of her mind—and one she was swift to stifle—told her to just leave, that it wouldn't be worth it to risk herself for them. For the ones who caused this. In defiance of those thoughts, she spun Myrtenaster and whirled around the corner. A rush of wind Dust blasted one of the three into the ground, and before the other two could even turn she'd flipped over their heads and in between them and the civilians.

Both sides were silent.

"Schnee," the leader of the trio breathed out, and was forced to raise his machine gun up to block Weiss' lunging blow. The fallen soldier had just begun to rise behind her, but the civilians had scrambled to steal his rifle. With such a sluggish weapon, he could scarcely do more than keep his weapon between him and Weiss. His partner had no such trouble, however, whirling out to Weiss' side and slashing into her side with her blade. Crying out as it bit at her abdomen through her already-faltering aura, Weiss whipped Myrtenaster up and launched the two backwards from the alley with another blast of wind.

The third soldier shouted and leaped for her back with blade in hand. Ignoring her wound, she twirled around his swing and slashed out from behind him before peppering his back with rapid stabs. It only took two to shatter his aura. The third dug deep into him and brought him down, cursing and clutching his stomach where the rapier had pierced out the other end.

"Are you three alright?" Weiss looked over her shoulder, panting and gripping her side. Her eyes widened.

The girl with dog ears was aiming the assault rifle at her with a trembling grip. The maskless White Fang they were protecting had a hand at a sword hanging from waist, an arm in front of the unarmed civilian. Their eyes danced across her, but kept returning to the same thing: the Schnee emblem on her back.

 _"Do you really think that this is gonna be enough to make you a big hero?"_ Torchwick's words echoed in her mind. _"That people are just going to forget who you are? Whose family is screwing up the world?"_ What was worse was that, for the briefest second, she believed him. Even after what she'd done, she was about to get shot in the back by faunus she came to protect because of her _name._

She shunted those thoughts from her head and turned fully to face them. "I know I may not be the one you _want_ to see, but, please, trust me. I'm here to help you." The three remained silent. Slowly, the girl lowered her gun. The soldier stepped forward, but pulled his hand away from his sword.

Then, his eyes widened, and his gaze fell onto something behind her. Weiss turned around as the roar of a machine gun filled the air and a stream of bullets sliced through the alleyway. One caught her leg and forced her to one knee, but that didn't keep her from draining every bit of energy Dust she had left to throw up a glyph large enough to cover the alleyway. Bullets crashed into the shield, and Weiss glanced over her shoulder to find the three faunus staring at her.

"What are you waiting for! Go!" The three practically tripped over one another racing off.

The former White Fang, however, slowed to a stop just before he would've vanished from her sight. "... Thank you, Schnee." Being thanked by the White Fang. What a world. Weiss chuckled ruefully at her situation as the rain of bullets faded and her glyph fell apart. Forcing herself up to stand—that bullet didn't get through her ravaged aura, but she was sure it'd leave a nasty bruise—Weiss scowled at the machine gun-wielding soldier stepped forward. She was a Schnee. Her father may have tarnished that name, but she was going to leave it _shining._

This might not be enough to make her a big hero, nor would it be enough to make people forget what her father would done. But they'd remember what _she_ had done. What _Weiss Schnee_ had done.

Her soul soared as the White Fang soldier suddenly stopped and raised his gun. Weiss took a step forward. He took a step back. She took another step. The soldier fired, yet his aim was off enough to not even shake her. With a wave of her rapier, she brought her aura up as far as it could go.

And her stomach dropped when she heard the sharp scream of two fireworks from behind her. Torchwick. Yet, two blue lights flew past her completely, the first bursting into a cloud of white smoke and knocking the soldier onto his back. The second froze him to the ground. Weiss whipped herself around to face him, yet, the only thing she saw was a dimming, white light and a cold, fading mist. She was alone.

Weiss gulped and glanced around. No one to her left. The three faunus had already run out of view to her right. The soldier was knocked out and frozen ahead of her. Not wanting to wait around and get ambushed with so little aura, Weiss jogged towards the dim light of the streets. With smoke covering most of the sky, it was like she hadn't even left Mountain Glenn. She ducked down at the alley's exit as a pair of Beowolves raced by, but, they didn't even glance in her direction.

A constant hum filled the air, by now: the Atlesian airships were floating just above them as grand silhouettes. The light of their guns were like lightning in a storm as they let loose, yet, few shells fell down to Vale, instead fending off swarms of squawking Nevermores. Weiss narrowed her eyes as she brought up her Scroll and started a call with her teammates: what _were_ they doing? She was as much of a patriot as the next Atlesian, but, thousands were at risk down here.

Why would Atlas let Vale burn?

* * *

"Surely, Chairman, you understand the gravity of an attack like this." It took much of Ironwood's resistance not to slam his fist on the console displaying the Vale Council, safe from all harm, casually refusing Atlas the right to help protect their people. Indeed, as he stood on the bridge of the Atlesian Aerial Ship _Atlas Telemon_ , flagship of the entire Atlesian Fleet, it took all he had just not to raise his voice. If it weren't for the officers flanking him, natural resistance may not have been enough.

"And surely _you_ understand why that means our soldiers must handle as much as possible!" the leader of the council replied in his shrill voice. "We cannot surrender the sovereignty of our nation by allowing Atlesian troops loose on our soil. We've done enough letting you flaunt your might, as is."

"Thousands of your citizens are dying," Ironwood all but growled as he leaned over the screen. "This is a matter of survival!"

"A matter of survival? Our survival depends on hope! What hope can Vale have if they do not think they can protect themselves! Unless you're suggesting we keep your aerial fleet above us full-time." The chuckles of the chairman's comrades said enough on their opinion of that possibility. Ironwood only thought of how much it contrasted with the screams of their own below.

"This is final. We will be handling this matter on our own. You may defend yourself as you see fit, General Ironwood." The line cut. Ironwood clenched his fist tight enough for his right arm to creak. One of the officers raised a hand to his ear, nodded and looked towards his leader.

"I believe I have _some_ good news for you, sir: we've captured the one you were looking for." The door to the bridge opened. Two soldiers nudged their 'captive' forward. Penny pressed her index fingers together and chuckled awkwardly.

"E-erm... salutations, General?"


	55. V2: The Flagbearers

**The Flagbearers  
**

* * *

 _"Ruby, Yang, how's your end going?"_ Weiss' voice was barely heard over the devastation. Ruby struck out ahead of Yang and CFVY, bringing her scythe in massive swirls that cleaved Grimm with every swing.

"Honestly?" Ruby ducked under a swing from a Beowolf and struck it back with a twirl of Crescent Rose. "It's going pretty good!" She watched Coco's minigun cut a gash in the Grimm and road alike from above, every potent bullet bursting into flame and force on impact that crushed even Ursai beneath its rain. Yatsuhashi pulled rear guard duty, driving Creeps out of the ground with a stomp of his foot before batting them away. As a Nevermore was struck by Velvet with ice Dust and came crashing down behind them, Yang prayed they never fought Team CFVY in the Vytal Tournament.

"We're almost there!" Yang called back. A train car pierced out of the plaza ahead, Grimm still crawling out from the ruins. "CFVY must have that Super King Taijitu thing running scared! We haven't seen heads or... uh... other heads of it ever since they got here!" A smaller King Taijitu sprung out of the miasma ahead at Yang, only for a rain of gunfire to shred it to pieces. A rain of gunfire that didn't come from a Bullhead.

Yang looked over her shoulder. A dozen other people were bringing up the rear. It wasn't just police, either: Vale soldiers, White Fang defectors, even other Huntsmen were advancing with them, even through all this insanity. She turned her gaze towards Ruby, pushing further ahead with every step.

She had an idea why they'd follow them.

 _"I'll try to get Atlas' attention and find Adam. Try not to have too much fun without us."_ Weiss' line dropped. Ruby let out a breathless chuckle. By now, she was sure she was running on fumes and determination. Her lungs burned. Her muscles screamed at her. The thought of having to fight that King Taijitu was starting to fill her with just as much dread as excitement. But, she couldn't stop: if she did so now, she might not be able to get herself moving again. A heavy bat of her scythe slapped down another Grimm.

Someone screamed. Ruby's eyes flicked up. A citizen clad in little more than nightclothes tried to wave her down as a trio of chittering, arachnid Grimm crawled up the walls with plates of armor across all but its abdomen. She hadn't even _seen_ that kind of Grimm before. The civilian squealed and ducked as one of the spiders fired a black, viscous web up towards him. Ruby's eyes widened and, with a shot from Crescent Rose, she launched herself over the battle lines and used the spindly Grimm as a springboard to launch her the rest of the way up onto the roof.

"What happened!" Ruby called out the second her foot touched down on the edge of the building, only pulling her eyes away from the civilian to twirl and slash the legs out from beneath one of the spiders in a single, smooth movement.

"We've been stuck here since the beginning! You have to help us, please!" The man all but begged.

"Of course I am! How—" She shot the final one down from the wall, thankful that these new Grimm were at least not that tough. "How have you stayed here this long?"

"W-well... well, we had a Huntsman helping us, but, one of those spider things bit him and... I guess they must be poisoned." He didn't need to say much more, nor did he have the chance to: splintering wood and the screech of shifting furniture came from below, followed by panicked screams. The man blinked and turned towards the stairway downstairs. Ruby had already vanished, leaving only a trail of rose petals for him to follow.

Three floors below, people scrambled over one another in the tight quarters of the apartment they'd barricaded themselves in. An Ursa had finally forced its way through the meager furniture and barriers put up in its path. The massive beast had gotten trapped in the doorframe to their safe haven, yet, it was already splintering. Their barricades were crushed under its paws the moment it could reach them. At most, they had perhaps a minute to pray, hide or take their chances with the horde clambering for them in the street.

In the end, they had only seconds. The people within screamed as the frame gave out with a tremendous crack and the Ursa stormed in, bellowing as if in thanks for the meal it had been given. Yet, its bellowing soon turned to one of pain. The civilians watched on with a mix of terror and curiosity as the Ursa thrashed about, then was dragged out of the room altogether. Its roars were silenced. No one dared move. No one dared breathe.

Ruby poked her head out into the room. "Um, I got it!" When she didn't hear anything, Ruby stepped fully inside, folding Crescent Rose behind her back. "Is everyone alright?" Her eyes scanned across the people in the room and, like a match brought to the wicks of candles, hope and recognition lit in each of the civilians' eyes when they met hers. There had to be at least twenty cooped up in this tiny apartment.

When faced with yet more silence from the citizens, Ruby opened her mouth to speak again, only to be practically swarmed with cries, shouts of thanks and cheers.

"A Huntress!"

"Is that what's going on, outside?"

"They're reclaiming it already! We've made it!"

"You're here to save us, right?" The room grew quiet, and Ruby was left scrambling just to recognize that people were talking directly to her at all. After a bit of stammering and trying to ignore the fact that twenty people were staring at her and people that were _hiding_ were popping out to look at her too, she gulped. What would the rest of her team tellher? Yang would probably tell her to just woman up and answer, Adam would say to quit doubting herself, Weiss would say something about being a dolt and then tell her to remain calm...

"Y-you, I, uh..." Alright, that wasn't helping! New angle: what would they _do?_

Yang would be confident! "You... bet I am!" Ruby declared with the brightest and most confident grin she could muster. Already she could feel a bit of that weight lifting off her heart. Then what? Weiss would gain control! "Listen up, everyone! My name is Ruby Rose, I'm with Beacon!" She unfurled and spun her scythe around her in a grand flourish. "And I'm gonna get you all outta here!" Adam would be dramatic!

As Ruby waved the cheering people upstairs and called for their Bullhead to start picking them up until they could clear the entrance, and as she watched the hope flooding back to the civilians' eyes, she knew that no matter what happened here, she knew was a _hero._

* * *

"Well, isn't this just one big, happy reunion." Adam turned his gaze around the room. There were twelve, including Chiffon, whose neck he had not drawn his blade from just yet. Each and every last one of them were students he'd personally taught, having followed the White Fang into an attack of this caliber. Perhaps they refused to fire at him because of that old connection. "So, have you realized what I was speaking of, before, Chiffon?" He turned the edge of Wilt away from her neck.

"O-of course! This... this isn't what we wanted! I thought the Grimm were just a _distraction_! I thought it'd just be taking out the police or bases o-or something, _anything_ but this!" Adam's shoulders slumped down as Chiffon rambled on, eyes panicky and brimming with tears. They were red, like it wasn't the first time she'd found herself crying, this morning. She was hysterical. They really did have no clue what they were getting into. He couldn't lie and say he wasn't glad for it.

"Have they sunken as low as the humans?" Adam asked, and finally sheathed his blade. Chiffon quailed, lemon-yellow eyes finding everything but him and the other people in the room interesting.

"... Yes," she murmured under her breath. "It's why we ran." A sharp bang came from a door down the hall, followed by shouting. They weren't holding up to defend themselves from Grimm, but from other people.

"Is that right? All of you?" Adam turned to look at the others who, one by one, lowered their weapons. The splintering of wood echoed through the hall. They grew restless, looking from him to the faltering door, too afraid to move. Surviving a fight with whichever faction out there wasn't impossible, but, even if they did have the numerical advantage—of which there was no guarantee—the tight quarters, wounded personnel and low morale would no doubt leave even more casualties. Nothing would prevent another attack, or their deaths. Especially against the Grimm.

"Please, Adam," Chiffon said. "We'll go away, leave Vale, anything. We won't bother anyone again, just, please... help us, Major Taurus." Adam's lips drew to a fine line. He wasn't their Major. He wasn't their mentor. He wasn't their leader. He gripped his hilt hard enough for it to dig through his gloves just as the door came crashing down.

But he _could_ be.

Adam's gaze turned up to the door as the soldiers beyond shouted. He could just see the eyes of the first person stepping inside as he pulled Blush's trigger. Wilt launched into the stomach of the soldier and Adam was right behind it, slashing up and clean through his aura the second his hand could reach his blade. Four other soldiers were in the hall beyond, two on each side of him. They didn't even have the time to blink. Adam switched his grip at the peak of his slash, twisted and struck down the first at his left before stabbing the one on his right. Two snap shots from Blush silenced the other two.

The air was full of the noise of crackling auras as Adam sheathed his sword. He paused as he caught a better look at the unconscious and wounded soldiers. They wore green. They were Vale's military. He narrowed his eyes: it was a reminder that the defectors beyond here had nowhere to go. They wanted to run, just as Blake did, but they were known traitors to Beacon, known traitors to the Kingdoms and, now, known traitors to the White Fang. There was nowhere for them to run.

"You won't be leaving anything," Adam said.

"What are we supposed to do, then?!" Chiffon spoke up. "We can't stop this, it'd be suicide!"

"Correction: you can't stop this _alone._ " Adam walked back into the room, eyes steeled. "There's more of your kind out there fighting right now: Fang who have turned against their radical brethren. We all caused this mess, and I know we can fix it." He drew Wilt and twirled it in his hand. "You want to know what you're supposed to do?"

Adam smirked and, with a flourish of his blade, pointed to the stairwell. "Follow me."

It was time to take back what was his.

* * *

Ozpin stared out at the pillar of smoke marring the dawn sky and stretching into the clouds, hands steepled in front of him, gaze not so much stoic as glazed over: the Bullheads sent from Beacon were mere dots in the sky moving towards Vale, now. But would they be enough? He would have never believed that Salem's pawns would have built up this much in so little time, even with her faunus. Qrow's warning only felt like it was yesterday, and now...

He gripped his cane tighter. The worst part was that he knew there was so little he could do. To leave the CCT undefended, to leave the Vault below undefended, to leave _her_ undefended, could very well be what the mastermind was waiting for. All Ozpin could do was watch. Watch and pray.

"Headmaster!" The shrill voice of the council chairman knocked him out of his thoughts. Ozpin turned to face the screen, where the council was one image of many displayed in the center of any video or surveillance on this breach he could get his hands on.

"I can assure you, fellow members of the council, that Beacon is doing all it can to defend Vale. We are leaving a guard barely fit to manage any attack on the school grounds, as it is." Ozpin sighed. "They struck when the majority of our students were away on missions. I am afraid this was premeditated for some time."

The council members looked between each other before their feed muted itself. Ozpin was slipping back into his thoughts once more when the volume returned. Only the chairman was prepared to look him in the eye as he spoke, even over a connection. The others averted their gaze.

"Not everything, Ozpin. You still have Miss Goodwitch."

Ozpin refused to let any emotion show. "She is already on her way, council. Her fighting and repair expertise should lighten the load on emergency services considerably."

"We don't want her to fight. In the case of the situation deteriorating, I believe there is a plan placed for her to use her Semblance to... seal an area."

Even through his concentration, Ozpin could not hold back his glare. "You're suggesting we create a second Mountain Glenn."

"We're _suggesting_ that it would be better than the first time a Kingdom has fallen since the Great War."

"It's out of the question," Ozpin rose from his chair. "We do not have the authority to sacrifice millions of lives!" He leaned forward, ready to lecture them further, when the ground shuddered beneath his feet, and a sense of dread filled him. If that was the mountain...

* * *

Blue flares twisted and flickered in the smoke and embers as the earth shook and broke Weiss' concentration and left the building she stood atop creaking ominously. Crests of the Schnee family faltered, but returned bright over her head as she looked around for the source. Her attempts to get Atlas' attention seemed to pay off, however, as a dropship broke away from the pack, engines screaming as it came to a halt in front of her. Its back dropped down to form a ramp, and Atlas soldiers waved her forward, blocky helmets masking their eyes.

"Ma'am! Please board the plane, we're leaving the area immediately!"

"Leaving?" Weiss turned her nose up, scandalized. "You haven't even arrived! What is the meaning of this?" The ground rumbled once more, leaving Weiss to stumble and the soldiers to look between one another, grimacing.

* * *

At the front lines, even the Grimm halted, ears and noses turned up in curiosity as the loud claps of thunder like artillery reverberated through the earth beneath them, and a low groan came from all around. The roof Ruby and the last civilians were on started to crack, and she could see Yang trying to wave her down from the streets below.

"Hurry!" Ruby practically shoved the citizens into the Bullhead's waiting door and glanced around until her eyes fell upon the source of the breach itself. As if on cue, the Taijitu they were searching for burst through the earth so close she could almost touch it, ripping apart the road and sending up clouds of smoke and dust to join the cloud above. The groan of the earth became a final shriek of stone and metal as the foundations of buildings, pipes along the streets and the remnants of the subway system below the plaza all came crumbling down into an abyss, dragging countless Grimm with it.

Countless more were wriggling within, ready to climb out. Ruby ducked as the gargantuan Grimm plunged into a building and began slithering out of the massive hole it had created.

And just like that, the Breach had almost quadrupled in size.

The part of her claiming this was her fault tried to claw back at her, but, a single look at the civilians staring at her in the Bullhead, still needing hope, threw it aside. She was the flame lighting each candle of hope. She could never go out. She was the hero.

Ruby smiled. "We've got this, go!" She leaped down to join Yang, standing at the edge of the crater left behind, watching the Grimm begin clambering up. Countless more of those strange spiders were rising. Velvet was already pouring devastating Dust upon them from above with Coco, and both Yatsuhashi and Fox were getting ready for yet another round against the Grimm, but, there were others that Ruby didn't remember coming with them: police and military and White Fang—that raised a lot of questions—and Huntresses.

"Sis..." Yang took a step back from the encroaching horde. Ruby could see that the ones that had followed were frozen in place, eyes unsure and weapons turning every which way.

Then the alarms, so constant and loud that they'd become background noise to them all, ceased. The speakers crackled with disuse, then a voice made itself clear.

* * *

"I am afraid, Headmaster, that such an authority is _exactly_ what we have. As such..."

* * *

 _"The Council of Vale has come to a decision: District R71, as well as all districts within a one-mile radius, will be sealed off from the remainder of Vale. All entrances and exits will be sealed within five minutes, and the districts will be reclaimed at a later date. We shall return. Vale's sacrifice will not, nor ever, be in vain."  
_

Weiss' grip on her rapier grew tight enough to almost draw blood. The Atlesian soldiers frowned, and one called back something to the pilot that she didn't hear over the roar of the engines.

"Sorry, Miss Schnee, Vale isn't letting us do much more than self-defense. We have to go."

"I refuse to! There has to be _something_ we're capable of doing."

"Our hands are tied!" One of the soldiers protested. "The only thing we're allowed to do is defend ourselves and Atlesian citizens caught in the crossfire. That includes you: we can't leave you behind." He sighed. "Between you and I, Miss Schnee, we we hate this too."

"And we'd hate whatever would happen to us if Jacques found out we just left you here," his partner added with a snort, but turned away when Weiss leveled an icy glare at him. Still, he had a point: the retribution Jacques would bring upon them if she got even a scratch under their watch would _almost_ be as bad as what he would do to her for getting in the middle of all of this in the first place.

And yet... if they were so held by that... Weiss had grown to mentally grimace at how much she depended on her name before, but, using it to help save others? She could live with that. She could live with using a reputation grown from cruelty to give hope.

"You're right, my father _would_ be furious, and rightfully so, at that. So, as an Atlesian citizen and a Schnee, I suppose you have no choice but to protect me, is that correct?" The two soldiers looked between one another. She caught a flicker of a smile on the one who protested against Vale's abandonment in the first place.

"It would be self-defense of Atlas and its constituents, yes."

Weiss gave them a pleasant smile. "Well, then, it would be terrible to derelict your duties as soldiers." She took a step forward, then twisted and sprinted off towards the breach.

"You heard her! Follow Weiss Schnee, we're not leaving!" Was the last thing she could hear before the hatch closed and the dropship took off, soaring right behind her.

* * *

"Faunus! Comrades! Allies to the cause!" Adam shouted from atop a van, surrounded by Grimm corpses wasting away into dark mist. Behind him stood the young defectors, traitors to Vale and White Fang both, face bare of masks and their allegiance shown by torn sleeves and black armbands. From merely twelve, they'd tripled since the sirens fell silent.

"Is this what you desired from your 'Third Crusade'? To unleash the Grimm upon your own kind?" Ahead of him, two dozen White Fang loyalists hid behind scattered cars and behind the corners of buildings, rifles aimed at their former comrades, yet, they could not bring themselves to pull the trigger. Even a full prototype Paladin stood silent at the head of the pack, White Fang emblems emblazoned on its side. "To massacre countless humans _and_ innocent faunus under the command of a _common, **human** criminal?_ So focused on terror, you've forgotten your _strength,_ White Fang!" He slammed his fist to his chest. Some of the soldiers flinched. Good.

"Where is the strength in having the Grimm do your work? Where is the strength in following a human even in your supposed finest hour? Where is the strength in only fighting when your opponents are scared and defenseless? Well? Answer me!" Only the far-off pops of gunfire and roars of Grimm replied. Adam stepped down and walked towards the lines, ignoring the raising of weapons and charging of the Paladin's rifles. "Listen to me. You wear masks because the humans wished to make monsters of you. They _want_ us to be monsters so that they can justify all they've done to you, to _us!_ The only thing you'll prove is that they are right to try and stomp us out." If only he had thought of that before he had created them, perhaps he wouldn't be in this situation, Adam ruefully thought.

He drew his blade. Two warning shots zipped by, one even grazing his cheek, yet he walked forward, unfazed. "We will keep moving. We will help the innocent out of this mess." He stopped within arm's reach of the Paladin, staring up at its cockpit. "But if you really think this is strength, if you really think this is worth it, then go ahead and shoot me. What's one more faunus to the pile, right?" Silence reigned. The Paladin's rifle lifted up to aim at his chest.

Cracks resounded throughout the street: masks being crushed beneath the soldiers' boots until all the only one hiding their face was the pilot of the Paladin.

Its guns lowered. "What would you have us do?" the pilot asked through its speakers.

Adam smiled and walked past the Paladin as he sheathed his blade. "Have the strength to know when you have gone too far. Have the strength to be willing to fix it." He spun on his heel when he reached the back of their lines, watching all sixty people waiting for orders.

"Follow me, Fang! We're saving Vale!" He turned and dashed for the epicenter, a small army following behind him. Adam's eyes widened as he noticed a shadow watching from atop a building ahead: Blake. She smiled down to him, eyes soft and carrying an emotion he couldn't recognize from so far away, then leaped down to wordlessly run at his side.

Yet, one thing nagged at him. "Blake, where's the rest of your team?"

* * *

"There's no way we can beat that!" Ruby bit her lip as the Huntsmen began to speak up. Now, what was she supposed to do?

"You heard the Council, we have to go!" Heroes couldn't just abandon everyone like this, but, if Vale was about to pull everyone out, what was she supposed to do? Ruby looked back at the odd mix of soldiers and Hunters she had following behind her.

"What about everyone else here," someone in the crowd. Most were prepared to run already, but, she couldn't. Not when she was this close.

"We'll be as screwed as they are if we don't move!" Ruby's grip on Crescent Rose tightened, and she made her choice.

"No! We can't just leave Vale like this! As long as there are still people trapped here, how can we just run away and save ourselves? Isn't that what we're supposed to do? Make things _better_ , not worse?"

One of the Huntsmen spoke up: "Look, kid, the Council said—"

"Screw the Council!" Ruby shouted. "I'm staying here, and I'm saving as many people as I can! If they wanna try to block me from saving people, then I'd like to see them try it!" She loaded her last magazine into Crescent Rose. "We cut a path all the way here, the least we can do is keep an evacuation route safe. I know I am," Ruby yanked back the bolt. "because I'm a Huntress. That's. My. Job."

"I-it's kinda what you do, right?" Of all those there, it was a demasked White Fang member who stepped forward first: the very one she'd saved on the train. One of his arms was in a rudimentary sling and all he could hold was a pistol, but, he remained. Like knocking down a chain of dominoes, that little push was all it took: one by one, the rest of the fighters caved and stepped forward, cheers rising from them as they prepared their weapons and spread out to secure the area.

Yang could only watch her sister, eyes wide and the smallest hint of a smile creeping on her face before Ruby turned to her. Ruby nodded to her, and Yang shook herself out of her trance. She fumbled in her pocket for her Scroll as Ruby jumped ahead and started cleaving Grimm before they could fully climb up. "Coco, Velvet did you two get that?"

"Don't worry, freshman, we got every word: we'll bring the worst of the civvies out in our Bullhead. You think you'll be alright down there on your own against that King Taijitu?"

"We'll be fine, don't worry!" She fired her gauntlet with a jab, catching a Beowolf mid-leap and blasting it back down into the abyss. "Just stay safe out there!"

"Heh, like you need to be telling us that." The Bullhead's engines picked up in the distance, and the aircraft flew off in the search for more civilians. "Your little sister's really something else, you know that?"

"Yeah..." Yang chuckled to herself. "Yeah, I do." The call ended, leaving Yang to stare at the status of her team. It wasn't bad enough that she and Ruby both were scraping by at fifteen percent, nor that even Adam and Weiss were doing "better" at twenty. A timer above their pictures flashed red. They'd been fighting for over half an hour straight. With the adrenaline keeping them going, Yang didn't doubt they could see this through, but, auras could only constantly regenerate so much. This much strain meant they'd get less and less back... frankly, she wouldn't be shocked if she didn't see her aura go up even five more percent by the time this was over.

Ruby launched herself atop the closest building and spun her scythe to a halt, finally coming face-to-face with the gigantic, cobra King Taijitu. Its black head was adorned with countless tribal markings glowing a sickly green. The same color showed through entire sections of its body where scales were ripped away or surgically excised, broken up only by four, sharp eyes still shining red. It was as large as the one that had crushed the hotel, and may have been even longer: Yang could only see its body breaking through another building, not its other half.

Bemoaning her sister's determination to kill this thing in the same thought as she appreciated it, Yang fired herself up onto the roof beside her. Spider Grimm crept up the sides and onto roof, approaching faster. For a moment, the three stood there, the beast ignoring the other soldiers and Hunters it could've reached, the sisters ignoring the dog-sized spiders skittering closer. They appraised one another. The Grimm, more an Emperor than a King, hissed in a manner all too similar to the rattle of a snake.

Ruby narrowed her eyes, and, just as the Grimm hissed louder and lunged, she fired Crescent Rose and leaped forth, shouting.


	56. V2: To Hold The Skies

**To Hold The Skies**

* * *

Ruby fired at her side and launched herself through the air to get out of the way of the Emperor Taijitu's lunge. She expected it to come crashing into the roof. She did not expect it to twist its cobra-like head up and spit a stream of glowing, green ichor. Another shot sent her flying off to a rooftop besides Yang's. Her sister seemed busy fending off the arachnid Grimm, every punch lobbing a deadly shell at them, but, while one died instantly, five more had risen to take its place. She was quickly getting surrounded.

"Behind you!" she called to Yang. Then, the din of battle suddenly faded. Lights darkened. The pungent smell of a burning city ceased. Her limbs were numbed. All she saw were the spiders, each the size of a hound, leaping upon Yang while she was distracted, fangs digging deep and their bodies blocking her sight of her sister beyond an arm twisted at a horrid angle. She didn't hear Yang shouting, or see any gunshots or her fire or anything and why wasn't she moving—

A hiss sent a chill up her spine. It was behind her. The blood hadn't even time to go cold in Ruby's veins. She turned to find the white brother of the head she was attacking, lunging with its maw wide and only a foot or two away. It'd burst through the building's roof without her somehow noticing. She couldn't even bring up her rifle in time. Ruby didn't understand: how did it all go this wrong this fast? Her thoughts faded into a confused haze. Her eyes burned with heat that just wouldn't stop.

The side of the Emperor Taijitu's face detonated into a fireball that sent it reeling. A screech ripped from its throat as it thrashed about, and, just like that, the cacophony of war slammed back down onto Ruby. The smell of dust and ash was like a punch to the gut that left her eyes watering. She snapped back around to look for Yang, only to find her atop the black head of the serpentine Grimm, gripping tightly onto one of its spines and punching down wildly at its armored back. The spiders weren't even close to where she saw them. _Yang_ wasn't even close to where she saw them.

Confused, she stumbled backwards until she bumped into something.

Someone.

"Really, Ruby, I would have thought after that close call you would have started paying more attention..." Cinder all but purred to her. Ruby whipped around, shakily moving her rifle from the girl in the red dress to the thrashing, white snake. Emerald stepped out from behind her, and Ruby realized just how bad a position this was: both of them probably at full aura, her at nothing, the stress _had_ to be getting to her for her to have seen what she did before, and Grimm, too?

Ruby gulped. "What do you want?!" she shouted, deciding to keep Crescent Rose trained on them. They were more dangerous.

Emerald and Cinder looked between one another as if they thought she was crazy. "You don't _really_ think I wanted it to happen like this, did you?" Cinder placed a hand on her chest in mock despair. "I'm here to do the same thing you are: help." Her eyes followed the serpent, not Crescent Rose. Even in a horrible situation like this, she had that thin smile.

"Uh-huh, yeah, right." She brought up her scope. Cinder didn't budge.

"If I wanted you dead, Ruby, why would I have saved you at all? A couple seconds later, and you would've perished. Trust me when I say I'm on your side, today." Now, it was Ruby's turn not to move. Cinder merely shrugged and motioned behind Ruby. "Suit yourself."

Ruby glanced back as the white cobra head dived down at her, scales melted and cracked on one side of its face. She dived out of the way and swung for its side, but, it was almost as fast as she was: twisting mid-lunge to snap at her again. Ruby rolled backwards and fired a shot for its eye, only for the Grimm to coil out of the way. They were both more agile than they were strong. If she were at full aura, she could chip it down, but... all it'd take is one, maybe two bites from the Grimm and she'd be finished.

A swift lunge at Ruby left her barely holding its maw open with Crescent Rose, feet digging into the concrete behind her in a desperate attempt not to be tossed aside or picked up. Her aura crackled with strain. Despite her mind telling her not to, she looked over at Cinder.

Emerald swiped away spiders trying to leap from the building Yang was on, but, Cinder herself only watched her with curiosity. A red Dust crystal sat in her hand, yet, she was perfectly content to let her die. Crescent Rose creaked and trembled in her grip.

"Fine, please, help!"

Cinder's sickly-sweet smile grew wider. "Now, was that so hard?"

* * *

"Stand! Still! You! Stupid! Snake!" Yang punched down at the Emperor Taijitu's armored back with each word. Every strike cracked the plates just as much as it did her own aura, but, she didn't care: her aura was as good as gone, anyway. The only thing she had to hold onto was one of the crystalline spikes jutting out as the snake thrashed about like a bull. However, whereas a bull would just jolt her, every bump and toss from the snake left her floating for seconds on end.

It was on one of these bucks that she saw that just where the Emperor was turning: towards the breach. Her eyes widened: it was getting ready to dive.

"Oh no you don't!" Yang focused on every wound and fracture of her aura, let that pain turn to heat, that heat into energy, and _punched._ Her fist flared with fire as it crashed into the Emperor's back and shattered the armor plating altogether. She could feel the force vibrate through its entire form. It hissed in pain and lurched down to prepare for another buck, drawing her into the air once more.

The spike she held onto snapped. The snake swung its head up just as Yang came falling down. The world flashed white, and the next thing Yang knew she was flying down the street watching her aura and blood both trickle away in the air. The ground was advancing fast. If she had any aura left at all, it'd pop if she bumped her big toe too hard, let alone smashing into the ground like this.

Too exhausted to even feel grief, Yang could only find the energy to snort. What a shit way to go.

It took her a moment to realize she wasn't hitting the ground. Yang furrowed her brow and looked around to find a black glyph bearing the Schnee crest pulsated around her.

"Honestly, what _would_ you two do without me?" Weiss said with a sigh from behind her. She wriggled in the grip of gravity so that she could lie on her back and stare at Weiss. Her head was still pounding, blood flowed back from her aching nose into her throat filling her mouth with the taste of blood. She was pretty sure she was going to get a black eye from how the Grimm struck her, too.

Yang gave her a big, bloody grin. "Nah, I had that!"

Weiss rolled her eyes and set Yang down. "Utterly barbaric." Yang, however, was a bit busy staring at the two Atlesian soldiers she had at her sides, one checking around them, the other taking pot shots at the Grimm around them.

"Who's your new friends?" She took a shaky step forward, and Weiss slipped over to help support her.

"Atlesian soldiers, who are doing their duty in defending themselves and the citizens of Atlas." A pair of Atlesian dropships burst from the smoke above and riddled the Emperor Taijitu with countless bullets, finishing the job that Yang started and leaving the already-wounded black serpent's head melting away as it dropped back down into the breach.

"Is that 'defending themselves', too?"

Weiss smiled knowingly. "We took some liberties."

* * *

The white Emperor Taijitu rose up and coiled in pain as Ruby dug deep into its side with Crescent Rose. Dragging its body through the entire building in an attempt to escape, it left the roof crumbling in its wake. High caliber bullets and spears of fire chased the Grimm as it retreated. Ruby let out a sigh of relief as it slithered for the breach. That could be enough.

"Don't let it escape: Taijitus can reform from just one head," Cinder said, already running. Ruby bit her lip, feeling just plain lost by this turn of events: why would Cinder want to ruin her own plan? With the entire building falling apart beneath her feet, however, Ruby didn't have a choice. Cinder and Emerald followed behind the serpent, leaping as one to the building ahead: the closest to the breach itself. Ruby jumped close behind.

"Why are you helping us? Isn't this what you wanted?" Ruby asked as she raised her scope up. With a perfect shot at the cobra's eye, she pulled the trigger. Crescent Rose clicked. She was out of ammo.

"Is this _really_ the time to be asking that?" Emerald huffed. Contrary to Cinder, she was focused only on the Grimm around them. A sweep of her scythe-like kama tore through another one of the numerous spiders.

"I've already told you, Ruby..." Cinder began. A spider sprung at Emerald from behind and was incinerated in an instant. Emerald smiled sheepishly at Cinder. "This isn't what I wanted."

Ruby opened her mouth to protest, but, with her mind still swimming from seeing Yang get swallowed up by the Grimm and Cinder helping her at all, she couldn't think of anything. A flicker of white in the corner of her eye caught her attention. "It's getting away!" She pointed to the snake all but lunging for the safety of the darkness below. Cinder raised the Dust crystal towards it. Emerald fired away at its scales.

A hole blew itself through its eye before Cinder could fire. A rain of missiles incinerated what was left in a multicolored burst. As one, the Grimm let out a howl that shook the city, and Ruby turned back to find where in the world that came from: more Huntsmen?

* * *

"Hold the line and keep this street open!" Adam's voice was just barely audible over the gunfire and growls. The shouts of over four dozen faunus, however, was easily heard. Ruby didn't think she'd ever be so happy to see _another_ wave of black and white, but, with Adam and Blake at the head, the lines of White Fang defectors turned a faltering defense into a winning one: the waves of firepower at least doubled, and the Paladin prototype was certainly helping. The Grimm, suddenly confused and lost without their leader, were being mowed down en masse.

Adam only halted when he spotted the tell-tale colors of gold and ice-blue mixed in with the chaotic lines: Yang and Weiss resting in the back of the skirmish. Ruby practically teleported to the three the second they'd gotten together. Blake looked up to where she came from, and Adam followed her gaze.

Cinder gave a friendly little wave of her hand from atop the roof. Her eyes reflected only mockery. He scowled at them, but, both she and Emerald jogged away... towards the breach. There was no way they could follow. Blake looked like she was still about to try until Weiss stepped in her way.

"I think... I think we've done enough, today, wouldn't you all agree?" Weiss asked, still holding up Yang. Ruby sidled up to her other side, helping support her sister.

"I don't believe we even _can_ do more," Adam replied, checking his Scroll. The fact that Yang and Ruby were even still conscious with their aura being slowly chipped down to this point amazed him: Yang was standing with a whopping _one_ percent left. "The best we can do now is keep a way out open for as long as possible."

Ruby watched the all-out war going on only meters away: White Fang, Vale militia, police and Atlesian soldiers fighting as one to save everyone they could from the waves of Grimm. They couldn't hold forever, especially if they wanted to pull back to protect the civilians a mile away, but, they could hold for long enough.

"But my team—" Blake began.

"Must have a lot of confidence in their ability to do whatever they're doing alone if they didn't ask you to come along in the first place," Adam finished. He stumbled further away from the epicenter, missing the brief look of horror on Ruby's face. Her team. Blake's team. She didn't know her team was evil! She could've been _friends_ with them, and she'd failed to save one of them.

Yang squeezed Ruby's shoulder. "Oi. Whatever you're worried about, don't. No one's gonna judge you, alright?" She patted her back. Ruby couldn't help but smile: leave it to her sister to just be able to hone in on what she was feeling, like that. Yang grinned and wrapped her arm around Ruby, strong even without her aura. "Besides, look at you, being the big hero! You're the one who practically saved the day!"

"Uh, hello? The reason for Atlas coming to help is right next to you, you know," Weiss protested.

"And once again, the faunus are chopped liver," called Adam as he slumped down against an overturned car.

"Yeah, it was all of us!" Ruby agreed.

Yang just rolled her eyes. "Alright, alright, I get it! You all helped, all three of you..." Her smile dipped for a second as her gaze drifted over to the battle lines once again. A whole defense of a district and thousands saved... and she did, what, exactly? Get put on her ass by a midget? Something in Yang twisted at that, fighting with the pride burning in her chest.

Unaware of the thoughts tumbling in Yang's head, Blake stepped forward. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, I don't think even this many people is going to stop the Grimm _and_ the White Fang from blocking the way out. Not for an entire mile." She sighed and turned her gaze down. "This is still bleak."

"I... wouldn't be so sure about that," Ruby mumbled. With Blake focused on the ground, she didn't notice RWAY's eyes turning to the sky. She looked to Ruby, then followed her gaze.

Descending through the clouds of dust and ash were Atlesian battleships.

* * *

The bridge of the AAS _Atlas Telemon_ was in chaos. As radio operators shouted new orders, soldiers all but sprinted through the halls and officers demanded new status and situation reports, however, it quickly became clear that the chaos running through the air was not full of dread or fear, but, a sort of nervous excitement.

"Dropships 93 and 94 are refusing to return to base! They said they're protecting a valuable Atlesian VIP!"

"We're getting reports of skirmishes across the district between White Fang and defectors! Unconfirmed reports are saying the defectors are even fighting alongside Vale militias!"

" _Multiple_ locker launches detected from Beacon Academy: remaining students are continuing to flood into the quarantine!"

"The Grimm have lost cohesion! Dropship 91's saying Beacon students took out some sort of leader!"

"It's a madhouse down there, General," one of his officers commented from his side, watching images and videos flood in. While the majority of the district was listening to the orders of their council, there was just one little problem-child near the epicenter: a major highway leading out of the breach that even the police were refusing to abandon.

"It certainly is..." Ironwood, however, was focused on only one of the blurry images they could capture through the dusty clouds: one of red, white, black and yellow. Ozpin's students. He knew, deep down, that they were the ones who no doubt were spurring on this thorn in the Vale Council's side. Ozpin had asked him whether or not you send in the scouts or the flag bearers. Ironwood fought back a smile. Those four were so impatient that they decided to take both jobs.

"Orders, sir? We may be able to turn this around." the officer asked, and the bridge finally grew quiet. Whether or not they took both jobs wouldn't matter if they died all the same, and Ironwood would not so quickly forget that it was Ozpin's academy that had been breached, and Ozpin's students that failed to prevent this catastrophe in the first place. Try as this team might to bring hope for a valiant defense, they'd never have the manpower to hold it back forever, nor would they have the influence to keep Vale from locking them in, just like Mountain Glenn.

Ironwood looked to his other side. Penny stood with her gaze on the ground, having been thoroughly reprimanded for not returning immediately and disobeying orders. Even so, her eyes still flicked up time and time again, trying to catch yet another glimpse of the same photo Ironwood focused on most.

Victory could never come without strength.

They were lucky that he would provide it.

"Let the Vale Council complain." The crew were all but holding their breath. "As the owner of Remnant's largest military, it is Atlas' duty to hold up the world when it cannot hold itself. Send a full contingent of Knights to support the soldiers still fighting. All batteries, fire at will!" In contrast to the streets below, there was no cheering or even a raising of voices, yet, as the operators went to work relaying orders, dropping hundreds of androids to the earth below and opening fire on Grimm, Ironwood could feel the mood brighten.

He allowed himself to smile.

* * *

Five minutes later, from a Bullhead watching over the wartorn district, Glynda Goodwitch raised her crop, reached into her soul, ignored her hatred of the Council, and focused. Rubble across the city began to rumble, entire streets rattling and breaking apart. Purple aura gathered into an intricately designed tiara of light placed atop the district itself. Glyphs etched into the sky burst to life, linked together like a circuit by wires of aura. For five long, arduous minutes, they had flown around the perimeter of the area she would be forced to lock off. Five long, arduous minutes of setting up and preparing one of the grandest feats of Semblance usage she had ever done.

It was something she had to do: try as she might to remain stoic and unaffected by the world, Glynda could not take having to raise wall after wall, closing off over a hundred thousand people bit by bit.

So, she did it all at once.

With a flick of her wrist, her vast aura drained itself almost to nothing. The district erupted into a purple glow and quaked as her grand spell weaved itself into existence: entire roads tore themselves out and stretched into the sky, reinforced by rubble from the collapsing city itself. The rising wall arced around the perimeter, glyphs guiding and powering it along its path at the speed of a train.

It would take six, long minutes, but, by the time it was finished, the entirety of District R71 would be closed off by a wall of concrete and earth.

... Except for a certain highway leading to the breach.

Exhaustion claimed her before she could finish it, Glynda would claim.

* * *

Fifteen thousand would perish in the Breach. Forty thousand were able to escape down and through the highway. Seventy thousand more would be able to find safety in the areas secured by the mix of White Fang, defectors, Vale militia and Atlesian machines.

* * *

"Oh, glorious sun, I've missed you so much!" Yang groaned and all but melted into her seat of the Bullhead as it took off for the safety of Beacon. Sunlight poured in through the open doors of the VTOL. It was the first time they'd seen the sun in its full glory in what felt like weeks. Weiss shielded her eyes but couldn't hide her smile. Ruby and Adam shared in their joy, but, their eyes were still drawn to the smoking district cut off from the rest of Vale. They could still see white figures moving along its outskirts.

"Why didn't those defectors come with us?" Ruby asked.

"The White Fang doesn't want them, Vale doesn't want them, and some are legally dead." Adam shrugged and winced: his arms were still sore. "We agreed that it was the best place for them to hold out and still assist the populace. I'm keeping in touch with them."

"So, are you going to go back to leading the faunus, then?" Weiss asked, carefully guarding her emotions.

Adam didn't look away from the district. It was a distinct possibility: with the defectors out there, he could keep watch on Beacon and Blake from their territory. He'd learned to coexist with humans and, even now, his true goal was to one day retake the White Fang and forge it into a weapon of justice once more.

"And leave you three?" Adam smirked and turned his gaze back on them. "Please, you'd flounder without me." Ruby kicked him in the shin, and the four fell into laughter. They were content to remain in silent bliss for the rest of the ride to Beacon docks, though, that might've just been because talking still hurt. It almost hurt as much as it did trying to just stand up and walk out of the Bullhead. Their knees felt like a machine that hadn't been oiled in years, and their muscles were as tense as steel.

This was why they nearly fell over each other when they noticed Doctor Oobleck waiting for them on the platform, still clad in his exploring attire. He sipped at his coffee. "Full marks. You'll receive your full report when we are fully settled." He spun around to leave, only to glance over his shoulder. "You've all done an excellent job, tonight. Today. Both."

"So... extra credit?" Weiss asked with a coy grin.

"If you believed yourselves good enough to assault the train, you should have been good enough to stop it. So, no. But, good try, nonetheless! Rest up!" And in a blur, he was gone. It was in those few seconds that they realized that they were back home. They were safe. No more Grimm. No more White Fang. Just classes, students and a really, really long walk back to their dorms. The most important thing to them at the moment, however, was no more adrenaline.

Yang flopped down onto her back. Ruby and Adam all but faceplanted into the ground. Weiss collapsed onto her knees and slowly eased herself into sitting. "Maybe we should just sit here for a while," Weiss suggested. A trio of groans replied back.

"No one's gonna care if we cut class tomorrow, right? Or forever?" Yang struggled to lift her head. Her eye was already darkening from getting rammed by the Emperor Taijitu, and her jacket and shirt beneath were both full of holes and slashes from where Neo's rapier could slip through her weakening aura.

"Screw grades," Adam grunted and forced himself to roll over. "We saved... Ruby, how many people have we saved?" The tip of his horn was chipped, and entire sections of his coat were shredded from smashing through steel, glass and chainsaws alike, revealing parts of his skin already beginning to bruise.

"Current count is..." Ruby shakily lifted her hand to check her Scroll. She didn't even bother rolling around. She barely even bothered lifting her head. "Fourty thousand and growing." She let out a tiny, giddy giggle at the thought. Ruby had been the luckiest: bar some exhaustion and ruffled clothes and hair, she'd been fine. Her aura had even mostly patched up any marks from Torchwick or Mercury by the time she'd even gotten into the fray.

Weiss' Scroll buzzed. "And it looks like Penny's just fine: Atlas scooped her up when she went to go look for you two." Perhaps the second-most free of genuine injury besides a nasty bruise on the back of her leg, Weiss looked more like she'd been hit by a bomb: parts of her clothes were blackened, soot still marred her face and half of the sleeve of her bolero was outright missing. "By the way, if you're ever going to do something that stupid again, first off: don't. Second: _warn_ us first, would you?"

"Heh, uh, my bad, there." Ruby waved her hand. "Kinda freaked out."

"Plans aren't stupid if they work," Adam added. He groaned as his own Scroll buzzed, and dragged it out of his pocket like it weighed a ton. Then, he sat up with a sharp gasp of pain and shock both. "What?!" Weiss raised an eyebrow and leaned onto Adam to see. Yang curled up until she could watch over his shoulder. Ruby didn't even move bar a lift of her head.

Blake had sent a picture. She and Cinder were shoving Neo into a police car. The girl was cuffed, but looked perfectly fine with her predicament. ["Cinder and Emerald caught the mastermind near the Breach. Torchwick's minion. No clue where Torchwick is."]

"They turned one of their own in?" Yang asked.

"Wait, what?" Ruby pushed herself up onto her elbows.

"Cinder turned this... 'Neopolitan' girl in," Weiss said.

"That's the one that hurt Yang, right? Mmh..." Ruby flopped back down. "Don't care."

Weiss just rolled her eyes. "What bothers me is that we haven't the slightest clue as to where Torchwick went, at all. If he's even _alive._ "

"They could be using this girl as another hostage: keep Torchwick loyal in case he gets any ideas. He seems the type who would sell out every ally he had at the drop of a hat."

"But why wait now?" Yang chipped in. "Unless... ooh, maybe he went rogue."

Adam snorted. "Yeah. Right. He must have truly realized the error of his ways and broke away from Cinder's schemes."

"Pssh, whatever. You doubt me now, but I bet we'll see him _Roman_ around in the future. Ah? Get it? Roman? Roamin'?" Adam threw Wilt at Yang, knocking her back over while she giggled. With their adrenaline gone and replaced with the knowledge of what they had just done, laughing came all too easy to the four. Soon enough, it died to a comfortable silence.

Adam glanced over at his side, namely, "Weiss?"

"Hm?"

"You're still leaning on me."

"So I am." She didn't move. Adam only rolled his eyes. Quiet tried to set in once more, but, as they thought back on their time in Mountain Glenn, one memory in particular began to stick out more and more to them. The very one that arguably started the chain of events dragging them there.

Ruby let out a great sigh and rolled over onto her side. "Um, guys... there's something I have to tell you." Adam and Weiss did not think it was possible for them to tense up more.

Yang, on the other hand, had laid back down, arms behind her head. "Yep. We know."

Ruby winced and curled in on herself. "Yeah... yeah, I kinda guessed. I know you probably think I'm all messed up now, but—"

Her sister actually chortled. "Uh, no? Ruby, Rubes, sis..." She crawled over to hug Ruby and pointed off to Weiss. "Her company's basically into slavery." She pointed at herself, ignoring Weiss' halfhearted glare. "I punched a chick onto an exploding car." Yang pointed at Adam. "And he's _literally_ _a terrorist._ "

"Ex-terrorist," Adam grumbled.

"We've all done some crappy things, Rubes. It'd be just a little weird for us to judge you on that, right?" She tussled Ruby's hair, leaving her trying her hardest not to pout. "You're still my innocent little sis!"

"And a fine leader," Adam added.

"And a great friend," Weiss said with a smile.

"Your best friend?" Ruby asked hopefully.

"Don't push it." Her smile grew anyway, and the two chuckled.

Ruby wiped at her eye. "Sorry for not coming to you two, I just... I just thought..." She sniffled, and her smile wobbled.

"A~alright, that's it, group hug!" Yang pulled Ruby tighter against her and forced the two up so she could reach out for the other half of their team. Adam and Weiss barely had time to glance between one another before Yang just yanked Adam in. Weiss grabbed onto his sleeve so she wouldn't flop onto the ground, which only made it easier for Adam to drag her with him. She only wriggled to get herself more comfortable. Adam, though he'd claim he had at least tried to resist, brought his arms around the three.

Surrounded by her tattered, bruised, loving team, Ruby managed a bright smile and closed her eyes, letting the tears flow freely. _"Y-you guys are the best..."_

Sure, their mission wasn't a complete success: Vale might've been saved, but, Torchwick was free, Cinder was lurking and the White Fang weren't swept away. But, her team was here with her. Her second family.

And right now, that was all that mattered.

* * *

"It's not too late to join them." Ozpin sipped at his mug, facing away from the windows showing the early dawn, and the visitor who watched from them. A plated helmet in the shape of a Nevermore's head sat upon his desk.

"... I've made my choice," Raven muttered.

Ozpin let out a noncommittal hum. Raven clenched her fist: it was that same little hum, just loud enough to hear, that he'd give whenever he thought—rather, _knew_ —someone was lying to him. And he knew she'd recognize what that meant. "Yes, I suppose you have, which brings me to my first question: why _are_ you here, Raven?" He turned in his chair to face her. Raven did not move, but her red eyes followed the movements of his reflection.

"I've come to warn you."

"Oh? I had thought you'd done a rather good job of that before this school year began."

"Beacon is still going to fall, make no mistake." She drummed her fingers on her hilt. "I know what you're doing, Ozpin. Creating another Team STRQ. Another set of 'Guardians'."

Ozpin leaned back and swirled the hot chocolate in his mug. "They are essential to Remnant. You may have given up, but, this world still needs hope to survive. That's exactly what you guardians were meant to do."

Her eyes left his reflection, staring out once more at the docks. "Do you know why I warned you, at all? Even with how much I despise you?" She disregarded all he had said. Ozpin said nothing, so she continued on: "It was so you could make your little contingencies. Run away. Hide. Whatever you wanted, so you wouldn't do this." She turned to face him. "So you wouldn't make your next 'guardians'. We gave everything to you, Ozpin, but, I don't care what Qrow says, you can't make us give our _children_ to you, too." She walked past him and snatched her helmet.

"This is their decision to make, not yours," Ozpin replied.

Raven glared at him over her shoulder and slipped her mask on. "How well did that excuse work for Hazel?" Ozpin pursed his lips and said nothing. Taking it as her victory, she drew her blade and slashed open a swirling mass of black and red.

"Don't bring them into your war. I _will_ drag them out of it, no matter the cost." She stepped through, and Raven was gone. Ozpin watched the space she vanished into for a second longer, then rose from his chair and walked to the window. As Headmaster, an unrivaled control over aura was par for the course. Without even trying, his advanced senses let him see the four members of RWAY with their arms around one another, laughing and stumbling as they tried to support each other to just walk to the dormitories.

This wasn't a mistake.

He knew it wasn't.

* * *

 **A/N: Alright, that's it! Second verse, same as the first, just like with V1 I'm gonna take a break for about 2-3 months and, after that, I'll swing back in with some renovations to the fic and then start the big one: V3. Don't worry, anyone who is worried that they might have to read through a 230k+ word doorstopper again, if there are any changes worth mentioning, I'll have a sort of... patch changelog for it. We'll still be in the same place story/character-wise, but, some specifics that may get referenced may wind up changed.  
**

 **IF YOU ARE TRANSLATING THIS FIC, shoot me a message: I'll try getting any revised chapters to you earlier if you want to swap the chapters. If need be, there's only one arc that has a big, _essential_ change to it, so if you don't want to change everything, tell me, I'll get you the ones that are essential.  
**

 **Thanks for reading, constructive criticism is always welcome—oh, hold on, I forgot something.  
**

* * *

Roman woke up with his eyes already open. Like he'd never fallen unconscious in the first place. The first thing he could focus on was the dark, reflective slab of a table he sat at. His eyes darted around to his surroundings without sparing a glance at himself: the last thing he saw was his own cane flying at his face, so he was definitely captured. That meant he needed an escape, and the countless windows surrounding him could do wonders for that.

Wait. His prison had windows. Elegant windows leading out towards a night sky dyed burgundy where the clouds were broken up only by the shattered moon. Jagged cliffs just reached into his view from where he sat, gleaming black crystals adorning them. Nevermores were flying freely through the sky like any other bird.

Slowly, Roman looked down at himself: in the cold, burgundy glow from the outside, it was hard to make out if there were any signs of dirt, blood or Dust on him, but, he could see no tears. No scratches. Even the knee of his pants which he had blown off to catch the heiress by surprise was patched together. His hand shakily reached towards his head. His hat was there. His other hand twitched around his cane.

He had his cane. He had his hat. _He could move his hands._

"You have got to be kidding me," Roman muttered under his breath. He was in Hell. There were no if, ands or buts about it. The Ice Queen actually had the brass balls to kill him? Still in shock, he leaned back into his chair. Shock gave way to frustration while he rubbed at his temples. He should've cut his losses and ran when he had the chance. Now, the best thing he could hope for was Neo figuring out he was screwed and getting out of there as soon as possible.

He'd just shifted to stand when he realized two things. The first was that he still felt his mechanical leg. Call him superstitious, but, he was pretty sure if Hell went through all the trouble to patch him up after a fight, he wouldn't still be lugging around that thing.

The second was that he was being watched.

A white Nevermore, barely the size of a crow, was standing atop a throne of black crystal. Light glimmered and twisted across its surface, turning its edges a faint violet. Its eyes, beady and red, stared solely at him. Roman wondered whether or not being in Hell would've been better or worse than his situation as he turned away and pretended he didn't see that.

Merlot was across from him. He wasn't there before. He stared ahead lifelessly, and his cybernetic eye was dull and inactive.

"Merlot," Roman whispered across the table. Merlot didn't move. "Merlot!" He hissed, keeping an eye out on the movements of the white bird. Merlot jolted. He, too, awoke with his eye already open, and his other activating with a flash of red light. Merlot began quickly scanning his eyes across the area, going through no doubt the same thing he, himself, had when he woke up. Except there was no time for that with a weird, decidedly _not_ Merlot-made Grimm watching.

"Over here, you old rat! I thought you got out fine, can't I trust you to do anything right?" Torchwick chastised him with a snarl. Always be confident. Never show weakness. That was what it meant to be Torchwick.

"I..." Merlot blinked. For the first time since they'd met, the old scientist looked completely lost. "I was. I... I was traveling away through the lesser tunnel systems as our plan went into effect, I opened the final door to the outside and then," he flicked a hand to the room around them. "we're both here. My eye cannot even identify where we are. It is clear, however, we are far beyond the CCT..." Merlot stopped short as his gaze fell onto the pale Nevermore.

"No, no... Merlot, look at me, this isn't the time to get distracted!"

"My, my, what an interesting subject you are..." His cybernetic eye ticked and whirred as it zoomed in. "I have never seen anything like—" Merlot's breath caught in his throat with a strangled noise. Torchwick, reluctantly, yet resignedly, followed his gaze.

The bird wasn't there any longer.

"Roman Torchwick. Werner Merlot." A monster sat in its place in the shape of a woman, clad in black. Her skin and hair were white as snow, leaving every dark vein showing clear as day. Her black eyes were broken up only by red irises appraising them both, drinking in their horror.

Salem smiled. "We have much to talk about."

* * *

 **END VOLUME 2**


	57. AN: Patch Notes

**Red Sun Over Beacon 2.1 - "Patch Notes"**

* * *

 **A/N:** Hello! If you got to this page by looking at the last chapter and have not read through the entire fic, you might want to head back one more chapter(if you were just peering in) or jump back to the beginning/where you were before: this pseudo-author's note chapter has... basically spoilers for most of the fic. In-depth spoilers, no less.

And fair warning to anyone who sees this: _you may not want to look at the reviews for a chapter until you're a few chapters ahead._ There's now a mismatch between chapters and reviews equal to about three chapters, meaning you might accidentally spoil yourself for something further ahead starting as early as Chapter 6.

 **The latest chapters are Chapters 4-11.**

 **IMPORTANT NOTE BELOW.**

* * *

 **A/N(11/11/2018):** "Oh hey man, where have you been for _two months_?" Yeaaaah, so, the second act of Volume 1 got a little away from me. By that I mean it nearly doubled in size. So, something important actually happened: RWBY's finally revealed a major chunk of the past! With that, however, comes a question: I do plan on going forward with the fic beyond Volume 3.

With that being said, I also had my own ideas for where things could go, namely **getting rid of the Relics** on account of, at the time, not knowing entirely what they were going to do in the grand scheme of things. Instead, the fic would've focused around another mythology altogether, and a plotline focusing primarily on the Maidens. With this new information though, there's a choice that I'll be leaving as a poll on my profile: **where do I go from here? Continuing on my own path(but taking as much from V6+ as possible), Continuing with the removal of the Relics(but otherwise keeping everything), or Stay close to V6(including Relics)?**

With this being a very important question that will change the entire path of the fic, this will remain even after the transition to Volume 3, likely placed in the first chapter of it.

 **A/N(9/8/2018):** Oh heavens, just look at the time. Seems like my vacation time is up! There's just one thing to actually get to before we can start digging deep into Volume 3, and that is one last revision to fix up a few things. Don't worry, this is not, in fact, a total rewrite, nor will I need to go so extreme as to delete and reupload the fic. However, I'm making this because my update schedule might look a little choppy, and those coming in during the _middle_ of these updates might be a tad bit confused.

Think of it less as a rewrite as much as it is... a patch, with this being the patch notes. As this chapter is posted, the first one will be put out. The updates will be in big multi-chapter chunks: Emerald Forest, 'Cardinal Sins'(revamp of 0-0 through Cardinal Sins into a full arc), Black and Weiss(least changes), V2 polishing, Mountain Glenn.

So, what is the purpose of this chapter besides just a general notice? Simple: this 'chapter' is the list of actual changes just in case someone doesn't want to actually read through this monster of a fic yet again(but feel free to).

It's also to say exactly what will be changed in the meantime: Volume 1 is getting a near-total rewrite. While some shreds of the old will remain, and all of the _events_ will stay, it's getting a fresh coat of paint. Sort of like a remastering, so to speak. "Best foot forward," and all that. Volume 2 is just getting a bit of polish here and there... but Mountain Glenn is getting a  full rewrite. While I think I'm happy enough with the Breach, I think Mountain Glenn can afford to move off the canon tracks a little more. Don't worry, though, it's more... laying a foundation for the future.

The original Mountain Glenn, however, will be saved and put as its own 'fic' for the future.

Once the rewrite is complete, this Author's Note will be deleted, leaving the notes in its place between Volumes 2 and 3.

With that said, the current changes are...

* * *

 **Volume 1, Emerald Forest(Ch1-3)  
**

\- The 'Hats' scene has been moved elsewhere, replaced with the flashback of Adam and Blake on the train from later in the volume to provide a better setup. Adam is slightly less melodramatic(see: does not effectively request Blake kill him) due to not having more of his character already built up.

\- At the base of Adam's blade is engraved a Mistralian symbol: _Chuugi_ , or 'loyalty.' It serves as a reminder to him to follow the 'right' path—at least, right in his eyes.

\- Adam is slightly more petty and hateful, especially in encounters with Weiss. Implication he knows of(and hates) Winter.

\- Wilt is given an origin: it was created by Akakuni, a forger in Mistral famous for his crimson blades. Unfortunately, his death in a gang order gone wrong put a swift end to that growing fame. Ruby noticing this leaves her and Adam getting off on a slightly better foot. _Slightly._

\- Yang is more protective over Ruby, even jumping in to "protect" her from two Young Beowolves.

\- Adam is snatched by the Nevermore due to being just that angry, rather than jumping onto it.

\- Adam tries his best to shout and give more militaristic orders during the Death Stalker fight. It doesn't work out well for him, with Ruby eventually taking the reins with her more tactical, individual-based thinking.

\- Edward Almond, the White Fang Lieutenant, is introduced earlier on as the new leader of the White Fang. He is the one who brings Torchwick the new Dust.

 **Volume 1, Coffee Break/Cardinal Sins(Ch4-11)**

\- Ruby keeps her cloak off at first in Beacon, trying to fit in rather than be immediately noticed.

\- When Weiss snaps at Ruby, Adam goes to talk to her after Weiss leaves rather than snapping back at Weiss.

\- Yang directly challenges Adam for their first fight, much to Goodwitch's dismay.

\- RWAY stays mostly separated with Adam rebuffing Ruby trying to bring him into the fold even after his fight with Yang and Weiss originally put off by Adam then by Yang. In response, Yang, rather than challenging Adam again in combat training, rematches him in Beacon's gym and loses again.

\- RWAY has their first team battle 'off-screen' which is only won due to them being all around stronger rather than any teamwork. Yang and Weiss clash heavily over their performances: Ruby being unable to take control, Weiss trying to take command, Yang refusing to listen to Weiss and sending the occasional 'friendly fire' Adam's way, Adam being a lone wolf. Yang and Weiss almost come to blows before Ruby stops them. Adam appreciates that. Weiss shuts herself off from RWAY.

\- Adam more disdainful of school life.

\- Semi-flirting with Yang axed, replaced with Adam trying to understand why she keeps attempting(and failing) to beat him.

\- The clashes between the team come to a head when, after Yang makes and fails one last attempt to beat Adam, she snaps and ambushes him in the locker room afterward. In a more brutal, unarmed fight without aura, Adam realizes that she's fighting for Ruby's sake("He could understand loyalty like that"), and the two reach a sort of unspoken agreement through their fighting. Perhaps not full friendship, but certainly understanding. The fight leaves the locker room a mess, however, and gets them in severe trouble. Weiss just tries to distance herself as far away from that as possible.

\- Ozpin is pleased with none of them, drops hints of knowing about what Adam and Yang got up to in their pasts, and warns them that they're dangerously close to _all_ being expelled for the year. He brings in some 'chaperones' to effectively act as social workers and rolemodels for them: Team CFVY, who are third-years in this canon.

\- 'Hats' scene is a flashback here.

\- CFVY and RWBY pair off. Coco, revealed to be the heiress to a major fashion company, goes off shopping with Weiss and tries to get her to warm up a little. Weiss explains her problems with Ruby being unable to lead, Yang being a brute and Adam being a vast list of insults but Coco sees through it and explains she's a lot like her. Coco reveals she used to be a lot like Weiss when she was a freshman, from the arrogance to the daddy issues, and suggests she maybe offer an olive branch to everyone rather than just "sucking up to the leader."

\- Ruby pairs off with Fox, who(after plenty of listening) tries to get her to understand that while she might not feel in control, it might be because she's too busy trying to lead alone and not trying to just work with her team. Being a leader is (paradoxically) more than leading, after all.

\- As they work out, Yatushashi tries to get Yang to realize that maybe she shouldn't be so overprotective of Ruby before other people get hurt or she lets her anger get ahead of her.

\- Velvet and Adam take a walk through the gardens where Adam proves himself surprisingly more kind and understanding when he's alone with another faunus. He reveals that he's a faunus to Velvet, and their talk is mostly pleasant, though primarily because Velvet decides to sidestep his problems with Weiss and finds he has few with Ruby(if she'd speak up) and Yang. CFVY later comes to the conclusion that he's wearing a mask around the others, and that the Adam Velvet saw was the 'real' Adam.

\- Adam still protects Velvet when she's being bullied, but rather than being thankful she tries to get him not to interfere out of fear he(or other faunus) will draw Cardin's ire, instead. She'd rather shoulder the brunt of the bullying. Adam adamantly(ha) refuses, this turns to an argument which turns to a shouting match until Adam implies Velvet is weak(internally, comparing to Ghira). To prove that it is by choice, she spars with him and makes a bet: first to a solid hit, she wins, he has to give peace a chance. He wins, she'll tell Cardin to go get bent. Adam is confident, but Velvet shows that she is on his level and wins. Adam comes to respect Velvet more.

\- Adam is revealed to be a faunus before Defrosting, leading to Weiss better understanding her unfortunate situation.

\- It is the bet with Velvet that causes him to check on Weiss in Defrosting.

\- One day, Ruby suddenly starts wearing her cloak around. Adam, having been more or less teaching Ruby about leadership and ignoring old "big brotherly" instincts, finds it suspicious. Yang says it's a lot like a security blanket("Just don't tell Rubes I said that."), so it's probably the stress from classes getting to her.

\- Further investigation leads Adam to find that she's been getting blackmailed by Cardin(favorite tactic) in revenge for him getting humiliated by Adam. He's just making her life hell under threat of releasing photos he got of her in her rather childish Grimm pajamas(used from some old concept art of Ruby). He uses this against her in the same conversation over milkshakes to get her to stand up for herself by going on the offensive with Cardin.

\- This backfires severely: Cardin, a cornered animal with little popularity left to spare, winds up tearing Ruby's cape in the ensuing altercation. It's revealed that Ruby's cape is special: weaved with some of Summer's own aura, which is why it reacts with her aura, expands, and seems to otherwise be part of her Semblance at times. This method of "auraweaving," however, is very rare, very expensive, and was replaced by dustweaving in the Vale/Atlas area. Repairing Ruby's cloak and keeping the aura that makes it so special, as such, is all but impossible. Ruby is unsurprisingly shattered by this, and curls up in their dorm.

\- Infuriated, Yang and Adam both march off to beat Cardin like a dog, no matter the consequences. Weiss, refusing to let herself get dragged into this yet insecure about her own ability to comfort Ruby, leaves for the library to wait for her inevitable expulsion alongside the rest of RWAY.

\- Weiss is intercepted by Coco and Fox, and with her directions, Yang and Adam are caught beating Cardin(and the rest of his team) by Yatsuhashi and Velvet. Yet, CFVY chooses to brush that under the rug(partially because they were sick of Cardin's crap, too), but Velvet isn't particularly happy about that fact and storms off. It's revealed to Adam by Velvet that her philosophy is from her hometown being destroyed by bandits/Grimm due to the White Fang rushing off to take revenge over protecting the town, as well as her not originally being part of CFVY. She joined this year, and the original member in her place was a now-dead girl named Nel. CFVY was originally 'CFYN'.

\- Nel was formerly Yatsuhashi's partner, and helped calm him down from a substantially more violent personality(why he understands Yang). He tries to get Yang to learn to slow down and look at things from a calmer perspective. The loss of a teammate she'd barely gotten to know convinced Coco that she'd better enjoy time with her team as much as possible rather than worry about herself, a lesson she passes on to Weiss.

\- While Velvet and Adam aren't buddy-buddy immediately, Adam mulls over the concept of staying back to help those harmed rather than perpetually seek revenge. It is in this state of mind that he realizes that there _is_ something he can do: after all, there's only one other person whose clothing is so connected to their aura...

\- Adam secretly(he has a reputation to keep, after all) fixes up Ruby's cloak. Weiss suspects him, but after only a tease of him being a "big softie inside," says nothing to the others. Team RWAY is back in working order.

\- Ruby's fight with Cardin is slightly expanded.


End file.
